SutgprB  Olollfg?  Publtratinna  ' 

SECOND  SERIES 


THE 

RUTGERS  GRADUATES 
IN  JAPAN 


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THE 


RUTGERS  GRADUATES  IN  JAPAN, 


AN  ADDRESS  DELIVERED  IN 


Kirkpatrick  Chapel,  Rutgers  College, 

JUNE  16,  1885, 


WILLIAM  ELLIOT  GRIFFIS, 


OF  THE  CLASS  OF  1869. 


Revised  and  Enlarged 
and 

Republished  at  the  150th  Anniversary  of  the  College. 


Rutgers  College, 

New  Brunswick,  New  Jersey, 
1916. 


PREFACE  TO  FIRST  EDITION. 


This  address  was  delivered  in  the  Kirkpatrick  Chapel  of  Rutgers  College,  June  16, 
1885,  before  the  Board  of  Trustees,  the  President  and  Faculty,  and  the  Alumni  Associa- 
tion. By  unanimous  request  of  the  Trustees  and  of  the  Association,  the  address  is  here- 
with printed. 

E.  P.  Terhune,  ’50,  President, 

J.  S.  N.  Demarest,  72,  Treasurer, 

John  S.  Voorhees,  ’76,  Secretary, 

Committee  of  Publication. 


PREFACE  TO  THE  SECOND  EDITION. 


At  this  writing,  in  September,  1916,  a monthly  magazine,  “The  Japanese 
Student,”  published  in  Chicago,  is  devoted  to  the  interests  of  the  hundreds  of 
young  men  and  women  from  the  Mikado’s  Empire,  now  pursuing  studies 
among  us. 

How  and  why  did  the  youth  of  Japan  come  to  America?  Who  initiated  the 
movement  that  has  sent  thousands  of  young  men  abroad  ? 

As  one  of  the  direct  fruits  of  the  philosophy  of  Oyomei  (Wang  Yang-ming, 
of  China,  1472-1529)  developed  and  applied  in  Japan,  an  eager  desire  was  felt 
for  all  knowledge,  and  therefore  the  learning  of  the  West  was  sought.  Sakuma 
Shozan  (1811-1864),  prompted  Yoshida  Shoin  (1831-1860),  in  1853,  to  board 
Commodore  Perry’s  flagship  Mississippi,  hoping  to  get  to  the  United  States. 
These  two  men  may  be  considered  the  pioneers  of  the  movement,  which  was, 
however,  like  the  Oyomei  philosophy,  under  ban  of  the  Yedo  Government. 
The  Oyomei  philosophy  of  idealistic  intuitionalism  may  be  summed  up  in  the 
words  of  the  enlightened  founder,  “investigating  things  for  the  purpose  of 
extending  knowledge  to  the  utmost” ; and  we  may  add,  even  to  finding  the  One 
“able  to  create  and  to  destroy,”  [See  the  Philosophy  of  Wang  Yang-ming,  Chi- 
cago, 1916.]  The  Yedo  philosophy  of  Chu  Hi  (1130-1200)  was  “orthodox,” 
that  of  Oyomei  was  “heretical.”  Many  of  the  descendants  of  the  Oyomeians 
are  in  the  Christian  churches  of  Japan. 

From  1859  to  1868,  the  year  in  which  the  new  Imperial  Government  came 
into  power.  Dr.  G.  F.  Verbeck,  at  Nagasaki,  who  was  teaching  the  students 
who  came  chiefly  from  the  progressive  fiefs,  in  which  the  Oyomei  philosophy 
was  most  prevalent,  urged  constantly  that  native  young  men  be  sent  abroad  to 
study  and  that  foreign  teachers  and  helpers  be  brought  to  Japan.  The  seed 
fell  into  good  ground.  Immediately,  on  hearing  of  the  coup  d’etat  in  Kioto, 
late  in  1867,  which  restored  the  Emperor  to  sole  and  supreme  power  and  cre- 
ated a new  government.  Dr.  Verbeck  left  Nagasaki  for  Osaka,  meeting  states- 
men of  the  new  regime  (most  of  whom  had  been  his  pupils).  He  secured  the 
despatch  to  America  of  Kusakabe,  Tatsu,  Asahi  and  Katsu.  Ise  and  Numa- 
gawa  had  already  started. 

From  that  time  forth,  to  the  present,  students  under  Government  appoint- 
ment, or  from  influential  families,  have  come  to  the  United  States  for  study. 
In  1915  there  were  over  620  Japanese  students,  male  and  female,  in  159  Ameri- 
can institutions;  21  Japanese  student  associations;  and  18  Japanese  serving  as 
professors  or  instructors  in  the  colleges  and  universities  of  the  United  States. 
Mr.  Katsuji  Kato,  124  East  28th  street.  New  York  City,  Secretary  for  Japan- 
ese students  in  the  International  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  will  be  glad  to  receive  any  data 
concerning  Japanese  who  came  to  America  for  study,  prior  to  1885. 

In  his  letter  of  request.  May  26,  1916,  President  Demarest  wrote : “The 
College  will  be  glad  to  undertake  the  matter  of  the  publication  of  ‘The  Rutgers 


Graduates  of  Japan’  as  one  of  the  group  of  publications  we  are  to  put  out  in 
this  distinguished  anniversary  year.”  The  original  pamphlet  of  1886  is  hereby 
reissued  with  new  notes  and  additional  data.  The  President  wrote  also : “1 

hope  that  the  record  would  be  just  as  complete  as  possible,  concerning  every 
Japanese  who  ever  attended  the  college  or  the  grammar  school.”  May  we  not 
hope  that  the  story  of  the  Rutgers  Graduates  in  India,  China  and  Insulinde 
will  also  be  written? 

The  text  of  the  original  address  is  scarcely  altered,  but  footnotes,  explana- 
tory, chronological  and  biographical,  show  the  sequence  of  events  and  the  situ- 
ation at  this  date,  over  thirty  years  afterward. 

For  various  and  obvious  reasons,  the  obtaining  of  full  and  correct  personal 
data  has  been  difficult,  and  the  work  is,  and  can  be,  only  approximately  correct 
in  detail.  As  such,  it  is  submitted  as  a slight  contribution  towards  that  ulti- 
mate union  and  reconciliation  of  Orient  and  Occident,  in  which  both  the  Re- 
formed Church  in  America  and  our  own  Alma  Mater  have  borne  no  mean 
part. 

Of  his  address  on  Charter  Day,  November  10,  1913,  on  “Works  and  Days,” 
Dr.  Hamilton  Wk  Mabie,  author  of  Japan : To-Day  and  To-Morrow,  and  fresh 
from  his  tour  as  “Exchange  Lecturer’’  in  Dai  Nippon,  The  Targum  gave  this 
report:  “In  his  introduction,  to  show  the  widespread  influence  of  this  college, 
he  said  he  was  continually  coming  upon  traces  of  Rutgers  and  Rutgers  influ- 
ence in  Japan.” 

Since  Japan  is  really  our  new  West,  we  can  utter  again,  and  most  appro- 
priately, our  ancestral  prayer,  while  having  the  Princess  Country  in  mind : 

“Sol  justitiae  et  occidentem  illustra.” 

William  Elliot  Griffis, 

Rutgers  ’69. 


Ithaca,  N.  Y.,  September  17,  1916. 


ADDRESS 


Mr.  President,  Officers  and  F ell ozv- Alumni: 

It  seems  appropriate  to  follow  up  the  subject  so  ably  and  brilliantly  pre- 
sented last  year  by  our  member  of  the  class  of  ’65 — “The  Scholar  in  Practical 
Life” — with  a theme  similar  in  its  associations,  illustrated,  however,  by  history. 
Laying  aside  philosophy  and  literary  discussion,  we  shall  pursue  the  humbler 
vocation  of  narrator  and  eye-witness,  as  we  tell  of  “The  Rutgers  Graduates  in 
Japan,”  and  what  they  saw  there. 

May  we  not  suggest  that  in  future  our  themes  shall  occasionally  concern 
themselves  with  the  achievements  of  our  fellow-alumni  Surely  a college 
which  already  wears  her  crown  of  a hundred  and  fifteen  years  of  honor,  has  a 
right  to  reminiscence  and  record.  May  we  not  talk  of  the  scholars,  the  states- 
men, the  soldiers,  the  diplomatists  of  Rutgers ; and  what  for  learning,  for  litera- 
ture, for  science,  for  war,  for  peace,  for  diplomacy  and  state-craft  her  sons 
have  accomplished?  In  both  our  own  land  and  abroad  our  fellow-alumni  have 
toiled  in  the  world’s  work,  and  left  enduring  works  of  influence  of  which  we, 
sons  of  Alma  Mater,  should  know  for  stimulus  and  cheer. 

Yet,  note  that  your  speaker  to-day  shall  not,  transcending  modesty,  detail 
what  the  Rutgers’  graduates  in  Japan  have  done,  but  what  they  have  seen. 

Our  first  Minister-resident  of  the  United  States,  accredited  to  the  court  of 
Yedo,  was  Robert  H.  Pruyn  of  the  class  of  ’33.  Appointed  by  President  Lin- 
coln in  1861,  he  went  out  in  the  dark  days  of  the  civil  war,  when  our  nation 
was  engaged  in  a life-struggle  at  home.  Despite  domestic  affliction  on  the  way 
to  the  far  off  destination,  he  turned  not  back,  but  set  himself  bravely  to  his 
work.  In  those  days  when  no  telegraph  enabled  the  diplomatist  to  converse 
with  the  home  government,  nor  steamers,  whose  swiftness  and  punctuality  now 
suggest  the  regularity  of  the  heavenly  bodies,  cut  the  Pacific  waves,  the  Ameri- 
can envoy  was  left  to  his  own  decisions  and  resources.  Our  first  Rutgers 
alumnus  in  Japan  was  sent  to  compete  with  European  diplomatists  of  life-long 
training;  and,  in  the  face  of  the  proud  and  exclusive  hermits  of  the  island  em- 
pire, to  maintain  the  prestige  of  the  United  States  so  nobly  created^  by  Matthew 
Perry^  and  Townsend  Harris.^  He  was  accompanied  by  his  son,  Robert  C. 
Pruyn,  afterward  a member  and  graduate  of  the  class  of  ’69.  At  Yokohama 
they  found  James  H.  Ballagh  of  the  class  of  ’57.  This  was  the  first  group  of 
Rutgers  men  in  the  Land  of  the  Day’s  Beginning. 

1 In  India,  China,  and  the  Dutch  East  Indies,  for  example  ? 

2 President  Millard  Fillmore  initiated  the  peaceful  expedition  to  Japan.  See  Millard 
Fillmore : Constructive  Statesman,  by  W.  E.  Griffis,  D.D.  Ithaca,  N.  Y. : Andrus  and 
Church,  1914. 

3 See  Matthew  Calbraith  Perry.  A Typical  American  Naval  Officer.  Boston,  1887. 

* Townsend  Harris : First  American  Envoy  in  Japan.  Boston,  1896. 


6 


Let  us  note  what  they  saw  in  1861 ; or,  if  all  that  wrought  in  the  life  of  the 
nation,  was  not  then  floating  and  visible  on  surface-currents,  what  deeps  were 
then  calling  unto  deeps,  before  their  mighty  fountains  should  be  broken  up  for 
the  floating  of  a new  ark,  and  the  dawning  of  a new  world. 

Here,  then,  were  the  diplomatist  and  the  missionary,  each  called  to  confront 
difficult,  dangerous  and,  at  times,  almost  hopeless  tasks.  The  American  envoy 
in  Yedo  was  accredited  to  the  Sho-gun,  or  in  more  common  American  parlance, 
the  Tycoon.  With  the  rest  of  the  world,  Mr.  Pruyn  had  come  believing  in  the 
duarchy  of  two  emperors — the  spiritual  and  the  temporal.  The  military  des- 
potism at  Yedo  had  for  two  centuries  propagated  a lie  which  all  the  world 
believed,  but  which  Mr.  Pruyn  was  to  help  discover  and  lay  bare.  He  soon 
found  himself,  as  he  himself  has  described  it,  playing  a game  in  which  his 
unseen  adversary  moved  the  pieces  with  an  invisible  hand.  He  perceived  that 
the  government  recognized  by  Perry  and  by  Harris  was  but  a hoary  fraud,  and 
a colossal  usurpation ; that  the  theory  of  duarchy  was  historically  a fiction, 
and,  xmless  the  treaties  were  signed  by  the  Mikado,  the  previous  work  of  Perry 
must  be  undone,  and  the  half -open  gates  of  the  hermits  be  shut  once  more. 
The  political  real  estate  in  Japan  seemed  about  to  rock  down  in  the  throes  of 
earthquake.  Unseen  forces  were  breaking  forth  to  engulf  institutions  cen- 
turies old. 

In  the  midst  of  these  troubles  on  land  came  sorrow  from  the  sea.  The 
Alabama  and  the  other  Confederate  commerce-destroyers  swept  the  seas  of 
our  flag  and  shipping.  The  officers  of  the  old  navy,  under  Perry  and  Rodgers, 
had  turned  their  knowledge  acquired  in  the  eastern  seas  into  an  engine  of 
destruction.  Crossing  the  trail  of  every  American  ship,  they  burnt,  sank  and 
destroyed,  until  our  people  at  the  ends  of  the  earth  felt  that  they  had  no  longer 
a home.  None,  more  than  they,  read  with  tears  and  knew  the  pathos  of  the 
story  of  “The  Man  Without  a Country.” 

Those  four  bitter  years  were  hard  both  for  missionary  and  diplomatist,  yet 
both  sons  of  Rutgers  quitted  themselves  like  men.  The  one^  in  mastery  of  the 
vernacular  spoken  language  of  the  people  is  to-day  probably  not  excelled  by 
any  missionary  on  the  soil ; while  as  translator,  preacher,  evangelist,  and 
founder  of  the  first  Protestant,  and  the  first  Reformed,  Christian  church  in 
Japan,  he  has  done  memorable  service.  He  has  seen  two  of  his  children  enter 
the  sublime  calling  of  the  missionary,  and  is  preparing  a son  for  Rutgers. " 
The  other,  whose  two  sons^  are  our  fellow-alumni,  has  left  a body  of  diplo- 
matic correspondence  highly  praised  by  so  impartial  a judge  as  Charles  Sum- 
ner. According  to  his  best  light,  he  upheld  the  honor  of  our  country  and  her 
flag,  in  a time  that  at  the  ends  of  the  earth,  as  at  home,  “tried  men’s  souls.” 

These,  our  fellow-alumni,  were  “beginners  of  a better  time”  in  a land  and 
era  of  falsehood,  sham,  and  gross  paganism.  What  did  they  see?  It  may  be 
that  they  looked  too  often  at  reeds  shaken  by  the  wind,  yet  they  beheld  also,  in 

1 Rev.  James  H.  Ballagh,  Class  of  1857,  who,  though  over  eighty,  is  still  (1916) 
active  in  Japan. 

2 Professor  James  Curtis  Ballagh  (Univ.  Va.  1888),  Ph.D.,  LL.D.  Historical  writer. 
In  Univ.  of  Penna. 

2 Robert  Clarence  Pruyn  ’69 ; and 
Charles  Lansing  Pruyn  ’71.  Died  July  7,  1906. 


7 


the  day  of  their  small  things,  some  of  the  greatest  born  of  Japanese  women, 
whom  God  made  forerunners  of  a new  nation  and  kingdom.  The  murders, 
assassination,  incendiarism,  the  apparent  loosening  of  the  bonds  of  society, 
which  once  so  alarmed,  were  but  signs  of  the  times,  heralding  the  day  which 
we  behold. 

Things  outwardly  beheld  were  these:  A military  despotism  in  Yedo  whose 
beginning  had  been  in  the  twelfth  century;  the  anachronism  in  the  nineteenth 
century  of  a perfected  system  of  feudalism;  an  iron-handed  ruler,  called  by 
foreigners  the  Tycoon,  holding  nearly  three  hundred  daimios,  or  landed  feudal 
barons  in  leash,  treating  diplomatically  with  western  nations  which  gradually 
found  that  the  signatory  of  their  treaties  had  not  power  to  enforce  his  decrees 
or  fulfill  his  promises,  and  that  the  centre  of  authority  in  Japan  must  be  else- 
where, even  in  Kioto ; all  critical  study  and  investigation  of  scholars  laid 
under  interdict,  an  embargo  put  on  foreign  ideas,  death  the  penalty  for  going 
abroad,  or  believing  in  Christianity;  patriots  and  scholars  imprisoned  or  be- 
headed; the  whole  nation  given  to  lying;  officials  abnormally  numerous  and 
fattening  on  the  people  by  oppression;  feudalism  made  spectacular,  brilliant, 
divided,  so  that  the  common  people  might  be  kept  contented  and  the  daimios 
might  be  kept  poor ; the  Mikado’s  court  isolated,  and  politically  a shadow ; 
Buddhism  subsidized  and  used  as  an  engine  of  inquisition  and  despotism; 
harlotry  made  legal,  and  sensualism  encouraged  in  order  to  lull  the  intellect; 
one  grade  of  people  beneath  and  beyond  the  pale  of  humanity ; the  mercantile 
and  agricultural  classes  with  no  rights  which  the  samurai  or  sword-wearers 
were  bound  to  respect;  with  no  process  of  law  known  for  the  punishment  of 
the  murder  of  people  in  certain  classes,  and  even  local  government  that  of 
“despotism  tempered  by  assassination.”  In  a word,  Japan  lay  socially  and 
politically  in  primitive  barbarism,  her  civilization  outwardly  glossed  with  art 
and  learning,  but  inwardly  a mass  of  rottenness.  The  two  and  a half  centuries 
of  perfect  peace,  which  the  genius  of  lyeyasu  had  secured  to  his  country,  had 
become  moral  corruption  and  political  paralysis.  It  was  the  calm  of  ice,  the 
quiet  of  the  stagnant  pool,  not  the  stillness  of  water  that  runs  deep. 

And  yet  the  deeps  were  calling  unto  deep.  Discordant  voices  then,  they 
were  to  be  attuned  into  harmony  by  Him  who  shakes  the  nations  and  bids 
even  the  lightning  return  and  say  “here  am  I.”  Let  us  note  the  forces  that 
finally  upheaved  the  old  state  of  things ; for  these  were  mostly  intellectual, 
from  within  and  not  from  without.  The  schoolmaster  and  the  student  pre- 
ceded the  revolutionist  and  the  soldier.^ 

There  was  first  the  study  of  ancient  history  by  native  scholars,  who  dis- 
cerned that  the  only  fountain  of  authority  was  the  Emperor  in  Kioto,  and  not 
his  lieutenant  in  Yedo;  that  the  camp  was  inferior  to  the  throne;  that  the  claim 
of  the  Mikado’s  vassal,  self-styled  Tycoon  (great  prince),  to  sign  treaties  was 
an  arrogant  fraud,  and  that  the  very  existence  of  the  government  at  Yedo  was 

1 See  the  recent  articles  by  the  author  on  the  Oyomei  philosophy,  in  the  Cyclopedia 
Americana  (1916)  and  in  the  N.  Y.  Sun,  and  Nation,  the  Philadelphia  Public  Ledger, 
Bibliotheca  Sacra;  and  The  Philosophy  of  Wang  Yang-ming  (p.  562),  The  Open  Court, 
Chicago,  1916;  and  The  Japanese  Nation  in  Evolution,  by  W.  E.  Griffis;  New  York,  1907. 


8 


historically  a usurpation.  The  mayor  of  the  palace  had  become  de  facto 
king,  the  pretorium  had  overborne  the  emperor,  the  camp  had  usurped  the 
prerogatives  of  the  throne,  the  civil  had  sunk  beneath  the  military  power. 

This  was  the  whisper  of  the  student  in  the  cloister.  It  was  soon  to  enter 
the  touchhole  and  speak  from  the  mouth  of  the  cannon. 

Another  voice  was  uttered  in  the  renascence  of  the  study  of  the  ancient 
classics  of  China.  This  superb  body  of  ethics  is  the  remnant,  or  so  much  of 
the  old  patriarchal  religion  of  primitive  times  as  it  pleased  the  agnostic  Con- 
fucius to  retain,  after  rejecting  or  minimizing  the  better  and  more  spiritual 
part.  The  Chinese  scholars,  driven  out  of  their  old  cloisters  by  the  fierce 
Manchus’^  of  the  seventeenth  century,  as  were  the  Greek  scholars  from  Con- 
stantinople by  the  Turks  in  the  thirteenth,  fled  to  Japan  and  taught  anew  “the 
five  relations’’  of  man’s  duty  based  on  the  obedience  of  the  inferior  to  the 
superior,  and  especially  of  vassal  to  suzerain.  It  was  not  to  be  expected  that 
to  Japan  should  come  renascence  in  thought  and  reformation  in  religions  like 
that  which  made  a new  Europe  when  “the  Greek  language  rose  from  the  dead 
with  the  New  Testament  in  her  hand,’’  for  Confucius  cut  the  tap  root  of 
progress  when,  eliminating  the  supernatural  from  the  ancestral  faith,  he  bade 
his  countrymen  “honor  the  gods,  but  keep  them  far  from  you’’ ; yet  a new 
spirit  of  inquiry,  dangerous  to  usurpation,  began  to  move  the  heart  and  mind 
of  Japanese  thinkers.  The  line  upon  line  and  precept  upon  precept  of  the 
professor  of  ethics  in  the  class-room  at  last  swelled  into  the  war  cry  of  a 
nation — Dai-gi  neibun — The  King  and  the  Subject — exalt  the  one,  the  Mikado; 
abase  the  other,  the  Sho-gun.  Let  the  military  serve  the  civil,  the  camp  obey 
the  throne.” 

Another  voice  was  heard  that  rose  from  the  critical  study  of  the  ancient 
native  literature,  and  of  the  primeval  cultus.  The  indigenous  religion  Shin-to 
or  the  doctrine  of  the  gods  makes  the  Mikado  the  vicegerent  of  the  heavenly 
spirits.  Increase  of  reverence  for  the  throne  and  ruler  in  Kioto  resulted.  Pub- 
lic opinion  was  moulded  against  their  counterfeit  and  imitation  at  Yedo  and 
against  Buddhism,  and  in  favor  a new  golden  age  in  which,  as  in  the  days  of 
old,  the  Mikado  alone  should  rule."  It  was  the  plea  of  the  heart  and  the  in- 
tellect for  love  as  against  fear ; for  the  experience  of  centuries  had  long  before 
coined  itself  into  this  proverb;  “The  Mikado  all  men  love;  the  Sho-gun  all  men 
fear.” 

Another  solvent  influence  which  was  to  liquify  old  ideas  into  a common 
menstruum,  out  of  which  the  elementary  basic  forces  of  Japanese  nature  were 
to  re-crystalize  on  new  axes,  was  the  presence  at  Nagasaki  of  the  Hollanders 
and  the  resultant  study  of  the  Dutch  language  by  native  young  men  eager  for 
knowledge.®  The  Dutchman  in  Japan  is  a historic  figure,  cursed  by  some, 
abused  by  all,  praised  by  none.  The  devil  in  him  has  had  even  more  than  his 

1 The  Manchii  dynasty  (1644-1912)  came  to  an  end  in  the  same  year  that  Japan’s 
great  Emperor  Mutsuhito  (1852-1912)  died,  under  whom  the  first  students  were  sent 
abroad  and  the  reforms  wrought.  See  China’s  Story,  Boston,  1911,  and  The  Mikado: 
Institution  and  Person;  Princeton,  1915. 

2 The  Mikado:  Institution  and  Person  (pp.  346),  by  W.  E.  Griffis.  Princeton  Uni- 
versity Press,  1915. 

3 The  Religions  of  Japan  (pp.  457),  by  W.  E.  Griffis.  New  York,  1875. 


9 


due,  the  angel  in  him  has  not.  Much  of  good  did  he  accomplish  for  the  island 
empire.  For  centuries  he  furnished  her  only  intellectual  stimulant.  He  was 
the  sole  teacher  of  medicine,  astronomy  and  science,  to  the  hermit  nation ; a 
kindly  adviser,  helper,  guide  and  friend,  the  one  means  of  communication  with 
Europe  and  the  world,  a handful  of  salt  in  a stagnant  mass.  Long  before  the 
United  States  or  Commodore  Perry,  did  the  Hollanders  advise  the  Yedo  gov- 
ernment in  favor  of  international  intercourse.  The  Dutch  language  studied  by 
eager  young  men  was  a key  which  opened  the  treasures  of  modern  thought  and 
the  world’s  literature.  The  minds  of  thinking  Japanese  were  thus  made  plastic 
for  the  ideas  of  Christendom.  It  was  the  quickening  influence  of  the  Dutch 
that  impelled  noble  spirits  among  the  Japanese  to  warn  their  country  how  de- 
fenseless, how  childishly  weak,  how  dangerously  paralytic  the  nation  by  long- 
seclusion  had  become.  In  the  teeth  of  torture,  prison  and  decapitation  at  the 
blood-pit,  these  patriots  uttered  their  warning  cry  and  published  their  knowl- 
edge. Japan  to-day  gratefully  builds  costly  monuments  over  the  once  neglected 
and  even  desecrated  graves,  wreathes  with  garlands  the  tombs,  enshrines  in  bio- 
graphy and  enhalos  with  glory  the  names  of  the  prophets  whom  once  she  slew. 
Yet  these  men  were  the  pupils  of  the  Dutchmen  to  whom  history  yet  shall  do 
justice.^  It  may  be  that  the  Hollanders  loved  the  wages  of  unrighteousness, 
yet  they  were  not  sinners  above  all  people,  and  they  who  have  most  persistently 
blackened  their  character  are  the  intellectual  heirs  of  Alva  and  Philip  H and 
Loyola.  Mflien  the  storm  of  revolution  broke  in  1868,  the  native  men  of  the  im- 
perial party  who  knew  Dutch  were  to  a man  called  to  responsible  office  on  the 
deck  of  the  ship  of  State,  while  those  of  diverse  political  sympathies  were 
speedily  invited  to  lend  the  aid  of  their  scholarship  in  the  work  of  national 
reformation.  These  were  the  intellectual  forces  at  work  long  before  Perry’s 
steamers  made  their  apparition  in  Yedo  Bay. 

The  introduction  of  western  civilization  wrought  mightily  to  help,  but  it 
did  not  begin  the  revolution  which  has  made  new  Japan.  From  1853  to  1868 
these  forces  seethed  and  boiled  beneath  the  crust  of  feudalism  with  their  vol- 
canic foci  at  Kioto  and  Yedo.  The  presence  of  foreigners  was  as  the  dropping 
of  a pebble  into  a solution  already  supersaturated,  and  mightily  hastening  re- 
sults to  crystallization.  Steam  and  steamers  enabled  the  daimios  to  combine 
against  the  Tycoon,  to  equip  their  forts  and  to  try  a campaign  against  him,  and 
an  artillery  duel  with  foreign  ships.  Their  dream  was  first  to  reduce  the  Ty- 
coon to  his  level  as  one  of  many  vassals,  to  restore  the  Mikado  to  full  powers, 
to  drive  out  the  aliens,  and  then  dictate  to  and  learn  from  them.  With  the 
troops  from  Yedo  in  moth-eaten  armor  it  was  only  the  old  story  of  long  guns 
against  carronades,  rifles  against  smooth-bores,  bullets  against  arrows ; but  in 
the  face  of  western  artillery,  it  was  that  of  the  bull  glorying  in  his  mass  and 
horns,  and  measuring  himself  against  a locomotive.  Valor  confronted  by 
science  rarely  avails.  At  Shimonoseki  one  American  steamer,  the  Wyoming, 
sunk  a small  squadron,  and  an  allied  fleet  cleared  out  their  batteries  as  with  the 
besom  of  destruction. 

^Most  of  these  men  were  students  also  of  the  Oyomei  philosophy.  It  may  be  said 
that  already  Japanese  history,  memorial  art  and  imperial  favor  have  richly  awarded 
honor  and  done  justice  to  these  “morning  stars  of  the  reformation’’  of  1868. 


10 


The  Japanese  learned  their  lesson  well.  They  broke  the  embargo  of  ages 
and  sent  their  young  men  to  study  in  Europe  and  America/  in  order  to  learn 
the  power  of  the  foreigners  and  the  secrets  of  the  west.  Henceforth,  with  busy 
pen  and  naked  sword  they  plied  their  tasks.  With  American  rifles  and  western 
drill  the  southern  clansmen  perfected  themselves  in  military  evolutions,  until  on 
the  27th  of  January,  1868,  in  the  suburbs  of  Kioto,  at  the  barrier-gate  of  Fu- 
shimi,  a few  hundred  cool,  deliberate  men,  strong  in  the  faith  of  science  and 
the  righteousness  of  their  cause;  strong  in  the  belief  that  the  decision  of  ages 
was  at  hand,  opened  their  guns  against  an  advancing  host  of  thirty  thousand 
men.  Of  the  decisive  battles  of  Asia,  if  not  of  the  world,  that  of  Fushimi,  Jan- 
uary 27,  1868,  must  be  counted  one,  for  then  old  Japan  fell  and  new  Japan 
rose.^ 

With  the  help  of  such  sinews  of  war  as  British  finance,  American  fire-arms 
and  the  iron-clad  Stonewall,  speedily  furnished,  backed  by  valor  equal,  and 
strategy  superior  to  that  of  their  antagonists,  the  war  was  nearly  over,  when  a 
second  group  of  Rutgers  graduates  appeared  in  Japan.  The  one  was  the  ever 
genial  “Bob”  Brown  of  college  days,  and  the  class  of  ’65,  or  more  officially  Mr. 
Robert  Morrison  Brown,®  who  entered  commercial  life,  and  was  for  some  time 
consul  in  Japan  for  Hawaii;  the  other  was  Henry  Stout, ^ who  was  located 
at  Nakasaki,  where  he  still  holds  the  fort  as  a toiling  missionary  in  a dif- 
ficult field.  He  took  the  place  of  Guido  F.  Verbeck,®  the  able  and  honored  mis- 
sionary of  the  Reformed  Church  in  America,  who  had  been  called  to  Tokio, 
the  national  capital,  and  made  superintendent  of  the  imperial  University. 

These  saw  Mutsuhito  the  123rd  Mikado  enthroned,  Keiki,  the  last  of  the 
Tycoons,  exiled,  and  the  center  of  authority  shifted  from  Kioto  to  Yedo  now 
officially  and  popularly  named  Tokio,  the  treaties  ratified  by  the  Mikado,  new 
ports  opened  to  foreign  commerce,  and  that  grand  era  of  change  and  progress, 
which  has  astonished  the  world,  begun.  Eager  for  adventure.  Brown  was  one 
of  the  first  to  traverse  the  country  and  try  life  on  the  western  coast  at  Niigata. 

.So  far,  however,  the  signs  of  progress  in  New  Japan  were  confined  to  the 
sea  ports  and  capital ; but  with  the  restoration  of  the  Mikado  to  supreme  power 
and  the  government  to  monarchy,  the  daimios  were  given  permission  to  em- 
ploy foreign  teachers,  chemists,  geologists  and  military  instructors  in  their  do- 
minions. Education  was  declared  unrestricted  and  the  interior  was  opened  to 
.the  science  of  the  west.  Liberty  to  travel  abroad  was  granted  and  young 
Japanese  now  flocked  to  our  shores,  and  entered  our  schools.  Providentially 
they  were  led  to  New  Brunswick.  Few  completed  a full  course  of  study  ac- 
cording to  our  curriculum,  yet  we  remember  how  eager  for  knowledge,  how 
consumingly  thirsty  for  science,  some  of  these  earnest  lads  were.  Willow 
Grove  cemetery  here  in  New  Brunswick,  the  shotted  shroud  at  sea,  and  many  a 
quiet  dell  under  the  camphor  trees  in  beautiful  Japan,  tell  the  story  how  all  too 
soon,  many  were  laid  on  sleep.  Others  lived  to  honor  Rutgers,  and  to  do 

1 See  the  author’s  story  of  the  genesis  of  the  idea  and  movement  to  send  native  stu- 
dents abroad  to  study  in  the  October  number  of  The  Japanese  Student,  October,  1916. 

2 A triumph  of  the  idealistic,  intuitional  philosophy  of  Oyomei. 

2 Died  February  18,  1900. 

4 Died  February  16,  1912. 

5 Died  March  10,  1898. 


11 


noble  service  for  their  country.  Of  these,  “Matsmulla,”  “Nagai,”  “Soogi- 
woora,”  “Asahi,’’  Takaki,”  “Hattori,”  are  among  the  names  most  easily  re- 
called. Speaking  in  general  terms,  I think  it  may  be  said  that  the  Japanese 
educated  at  New  Brunswick  have  honored  their  teachers  and  have  been  found 
on  the  right  side  of  the  great  questions  which  enter  into  the  life  of  men  and  of 
nations. 

Prominent  among  the  leading  daimios  who  had  taken  part  in  the  coup 
d’etat  at  Kioto,  January  3,  1868,  which  had  upset  the  old,  and  set  up  the  new 
order  of  things,  was  Matsudaira,  lord  of  the  province  of  Echizen.^  Taking 
immediate  advantage  of  the  situation,  he  applied  to  Dr.  V erbeck  for  a teacher 
of  science  at  Fukui,  the  capital  of  his  fief  or  principality.  Directly  and  indi- 
rectly, this  was  the  means  of  bringing  out  from  Rutgers  college  three  more 
alumni,  two  members  of  the  class  of  ’69  and  one  of  ’71.  Your  speaker  went  as 
pioneer  of  this  new  group,  and  the  first  American  to  live  inside  the  country  be- 
yond treaty  ports."  He  is,  perhaps,  the  only  white  man  living  who  has  seen 
from  the  inside  the  Japanese  feudal  system  in  its  detail,  its  fulness,  its  glory  and 
its  fall.  Leaving  the  nineteenth  century  for  the  fourteenth,  he  looked  daily  for 
seven  months  upon  a political  system  and  social  life  never  again  to  appear  on 
the  earth;  and  then,  on  that  memorable  Sabbath  morning  of  October  1,  1871, 
in  the  great  castle  hall,  saw  the  five  thousand  armed  warriors  and  gentlemen, 
the  two-sworded  retainers  of  the  princely  house  of  Echizen,  bid  solemn  fare- 
well to  their  feudal  lord,  who  stepped  forth  a private  citizen,  and  they  from 
rank  and  hereditary  emolument  to  hard  work  and  self-support.  They  beheld 
feudal  institutions,  after  a thousand  years  of  growth  and  seven  hundred  of 
power  and  embodiment,  buried  under  a pen-stroke  of  the  Mikado.  In  other  of 
the  nearly  three  hundred  feudal  sections  of  the  empire,  the  proud  men  of 
hereditary  privilege  and  rank  refused  thus  calmly  to  obey.  They  took  up  the 
sword,  and  they  perished  by  the  breech-loader. 

Before  leaving  Echizen,  after  one  year’s  stay  and  toil,  the  Rutgers  graduate 
at  Fukui  had  called  out  Edward  Warren  Clark, ^ of  the  class  of  1869,  and  Mar- 
tin N.  Wyckoff,^  of  the  class  of  1872.  The  former  organized  a school  at  Shid- 
zu5ka  in  Suruga,  called  by  himself  “The  St.  Helena  of  Tycoonism.”  There 
dwelt  the  last  of  the  line  of  Yedo  Sh5-guns,  surrounded  by  many  of  his  old 
court  who,  from  being  magnates  in  power,  had  become  private  citizens.  Wyc- 
koff,  after  two  years  of  labor  in  Fukui,  and  two  more  in  Niigata  came,  as  did 
Clark  later  on,  to  Tokio ; for  the  fall  of  feudalism,  though  in  the  end  beneficial 
to  the  nation,  was  at  first  destructive  to  local  interests,  especially  to  the  schools 
of  the  old  foundation,  organized  under  the  auspices  of  the  daimios.  At  one 
time  we  had  no  fewer  than  seven  Rutgers  graduates  in  Japan,  together  with 

1 See  his  biography  in  The  Mikado;  Institution  and  Person.  He  was  a devoted 
Oyomeian,  and  feudal  lord  to  Kusakahe  Taro. 

“This  Rutgers  graduate  was  the  first  of  the  0-yatoi  (salaried  foreigners)  called  out 
from  a foreign  country,  according  to  the  charter  oath  of  1868,  which  created  the  new 
Imperial  Government.  From  1868  to  1900,  about  five  thousand  Yatoi  from  the  various 
countries  served  the  Japanese.  Probably  twelve  hundred  were  American  teachers.  A 
work  on  the  Yatoi  may  be  published.  For  the  burial  of  feudalism  see  The  Mikado’s 
Empire,  p.  534. 

3 Died  June  5,  1907. 

4 Died  January  27,  1911. 

\ 


12 


our  dear  professor,  David  Murray,^  the  superintendent  of  schools  and  colleges 
in  Japan. 

In  the  fourth  and  latest  group  of  Rutgers  alumni  in  the  Mikado’s  empire 
are  to  be  found  Eugene  S.  Booth,  of  the  class  of  ’76,  who  is  now  in  charge  of 
the  Ferris  Seminary  at  Yokohama,  N.  H.  Demarest,  of  the  class  of  ’80,  at 
Nagasaki,  Howard  Harris,  of  the  class  of  ’73,  now  in  Tokio  and  M.  N.  Wyc- 
koff,  who  after  a four  years’  stay  in  the  United  States,  returned  to  Japan,  and 
is  now  principal  of  the  Sandham  Academy,  the  Christian  Union  College  of  To- 
kio. He  has  taught  not  only  Japanese,  but  Coreans;  seven  of  these  sons  of 
Ch5-sen  have  been  under  his  own  or  his  wife’s  instruction.  No  graduate  of 
Rutgers  has  yet  entered  the  Land  of  Morning  Calm,  tliough  the  Rev.  Horace 
Underwood  who  was  trained  in  the  New  Brunswick  Theological  Seminary,  is 
now  a missionary  in  Seoul.-  All  in  this  latest  group  of  Rutgers  men  are,  with 
Ballagh  and  Stout,  missionaries  of  the  Reformed  Church  in  America,  engaged 
in  laying  the  foundation  of  a new  Christian  nation  in  Asia.® 

Of  the  Japanese  who  were  fellow-students  with  us,  or  who  were  graduated 
from  our  Alma  Mater — the  ministers  of  Christ,  and  the  envoys  of  the  Mikado, 
the  rear  admiral,  the  high  officers  of  the  government  and  the  men  eminent  or 
useful  in  politics,  finance,  science,  education  and  commercial  life  — we  cannot 
here  speak.^ 

The  Rutgers  graduate  of  ’69  during  those  three  years  spent  by  him  in  the 
new  capital,  Tokio,  saw,  knew,  talked  with,  or  studied,  the  leading  men  of  New 
Japan.  Let  us  glance  at  a few. 

The  first  whom  he  met  in  Tokid  was  Munenori  Terashima,  for  many  years 
the  Mikado’s  minister  of  foreign  affairs,  and  later  his  envoy  at  the  Court  of  St. 
James  and  at  Washington.  Though  of  gentle  blood  and  highly  educated,  he 
went  when  a young  man  to  Nagasaki,  and  became  a stevedore  and  laborer,  un- 
loading Dutch  vessels  and  undergoing  menial  toil  that  he  might  master  a Euro- 
pean language  and  the  ways  of  the  foreigners.  Coming  to  the  front  in  the 
revolution,  he  knew  the  good  and  the  evil,  and  could  measure  both  the  bluster 
and  the  abilities  of  each  member  of  the  diplomatic  corps.  He  possessed  the 
masterful  faculty  of  holding  his  tongue  in  several  languages,  and  biding  his 
time  until  opportunity  came.  At  a council  of  the  ministers  he  could  sit  all  day, 
quiet  as  a lamb,  yet  as  a tiger  crouching,  gathering  all  his  strength  for  a final 
spring  that  would  bear  down  all  opposition.  No  man  more  than  he  understood 
how  to  wield  the  weapon  of  silence.  Jealous  to  the  last  degree  of  the  prestige 
of  the  central  government,  he  struck  out  of  my  contract  with  Lchizen  the  word 
“government”  and  substituted  “local  authorities.”®  The  same  jealous  feeling 
of  statecraft  rather  than  religious  convictions  or  intolerant  bigotry  led  him  to 
propose  a clause  forbidding  the  teaching  of  Christianity.  The  Rutgers  gradu- 
ate of  ’69  refused  to  have  any  dictation  in  this  matter  or  in  that  in  regard  to 

1 Died  March  6,  190.S. 

^ In  1916,  visiting  America,  after  thirty-two  years  of  active  service. 

3 See  Christ  the  Creator  of  the  New  Japan,  pp.  20.  Boston,  A.  B.  C.  F.  M.,  1907. 

^ See  IV  Personal  Notices. 

5 The  Mikado’s  Empire,  p.  402.  Assistant  in  this  transaction  as  vice-minister  in  the 
Foreign  Office  was  Shigenobu  Okuma,  now  1914-1916-|-  Premier  of  Japan,  one  of  Ver- 
beck’s  pupils. 


13 


absolute  Sabbath  rest.  Terashima  waived  the  points,  and  without  fuss  or  sen- 
sation in  American  newspapers,  religious  or  otherwise.^  the  Rutgers  graduate, 
after  a dinner  with  a half  dozen  daimios,^  disappeared  in  the  interior,  having 
compromised  naught  of  faith,  character  or  patriotism.  Later,  when  the  director 
of  the  Imperial  University  in  Tokio,  attempted  to  compel  the  American  teach- 
ers to  ply  their  tasks  on  Sunday,  the  answer  of  the  Rutgers  graduate  was,  “not 
for  ten  thousand  dollars  a month,”  and  his  prompt  organization  of  resistance 
-into  compact  unity.  When  obedience  under  coercion,  with  the  alternative  of 
being  cashiered,  was  presented,  the  Rutgers  graduate  with  the  Japanese  “Soo- 
giwoora”  (Hatakeyama)  made  a call  upon  the  prime  minister,  and  stated  the 
facts.  The  bullying  director  was  transferred  to  another  field  of  labor,  and  the 
men  from  Christendom  were  left  without  compromise  of  character  or  convic- 
tions. The  Rutgers  graduates  lived  to  see  the  Japanese  themselves  observe  the 
great  law  of  one  day  in  the  week  for  rest,  not  only  in  all  the  schools,  but  also  in 
the  government  offices ; while  over  forty  thousand  day-schools  in  active  opera- 
tion, on  the  American  systems,  testify  to  the  sincerity  of  the  Japanese  belief 
that  “education  is  the  basis  of  progress.’’® 

The  prime  minister  referred  to  was  Iwakura  Tomomi,  whose  three  sons 
Asahi,  Minami  and  Tatsu  were  educated  at  New  Brunswick. 

The  composite  government  now  ruling  Japan  was  made  upon  the  theory  of 
a union  of  the  throne  with  the  people,  without  any  of  intermediaries  except  the 
court  nobles  of  imperial  blood  and  descent.  Hence  there  stood  together 
high-souled  parvenus,  and  blue-blooded  magnates  of  immemorial  lineage — the 
strength  of  youth  united  to  the  majesty  of  antiquity.  Beneath  these  two 
groups,  the  daimios  or  territorial  feudal  nobles — men,  as  a rule,  of  no  personal 
importance — sank  out  of  sight. 

On  the  one  side,  then,  we  saw  Sanjo  Saneyoshi  and  Iwakura  Tomomi  com- 
panions of  the  throne  and  the  Mikado ; and  on  the  other,  able  men  sprung  from 
the  people,  Saigo,  Okubo,  Kido,  Katsu,  Itagaki  and  many  others. Let  us  draw 
a pen  picture  of  some  of  them. 

Of  Sanjo,  still  living,®  we  say  nothing  but  praise,  but  pass  to  Iwakura,  well 
named  !'Rock-throne,”  and  fitly  called  the  “Bismark  of  Japan.”  A personal  at- 
tendant upon  the  emperor  in  Kioto,  at  the  age  of  twenty,  he  began  openly  to 
oppose  the  assumptions  of  the  Yedo  usurpation  which  to  him  was  but  an  exag- 
gerated repetition  of  previous  thefts  of  power.  He  ridiculed  the  title  of 
Tycoon  or  “great  prince”  used  in  the  treaty  documents.  He  hated  all  foreign- 

1 All  of  these  men  were  disciples  of  Kokoi  Heishiro,  and  adherents  to  the  Oyomei 
philosophy,  of  which  Fukiii  had  been  a centre  of  propagation. 

2 There  were  some  frauds,  pious  and  otherwise,  among  both  Japanese  and  Americans, 
in  the  relations  of  these  early  years ; but,  on  the  whole,  the  record  is  one  highly  honor- 
able to  both  nations  and  civilizations;  though  in  tradition  and  gossip  the  Japanese  have 
had  to  suffer  the  more.  See  Professor  Longford’s  The  Story  of  Old  Japan,  pp.  324-329, 
London,  1910. 

3 A direct  corollary  of  the  Oyomei  philosophy  held  by  the  men  who  made  the  New 
Japan. 

4 Almost  every  one  Oyomeians,  and  several  of  the  premiers  from  1868  to  1914  were 
immediate  pupils  of  Yoshida  Shoin  (of  whom  R.  L.  Stevenson  tells  in  his  chapter  on 
Yoshida  Toraijiro),  who  first,  in  1833,  boarded  Commodore  Perry’s  flagship,  hoping  to 
come  as  a student  to  America. 

5 All  the  Japanese  statesmen,  except  one,  Itagaki,  mentioned  in  this  address  of  1885, 
have  passed  away.  Okuma,  Verbeck’s  pupil  and  premier,  1914-19164-,  is  still  living. 


14 


ers,  though  he  never  saw  one  until  he  was  over  forty  years  old.  Five  minutes’ 
sight  of  Sir  Harry  I’arkes,  the  British  envoy,  converted  him,  and  henceforth 
he  believed  in  their  humanity,  equality  and  abilities;  though  when  they  met 
this  man  in  diplomacy,  they  found  him,  who  from  childhood  had  been  a recluse 
at  court,  their  match.  Having  ever  the  overthrow  of  duarchy  and  feudalism  in 
view,  he  made  himself  the  willing  instrument  in  the  palace  of  the  plans  of  the 
revolutionists.  He  sent  his  sons  to  learn  of  the  teacher  from  tire  New  World, 
at  Nagasaki,  Guido  Verbeck,  and  then  later  to  New  Brunswick.  He  prevailed 
upon  the  Mikado  to  sign  the  treaties.  The  revolution  of  1868,  which  sifted  the 
pretensions  of  great  names,  found  him  the  foremost  man  for  the  new  age 
among  all  the  court  nobility.  ■ 

It  was  he,  who  after  Kido’s  memorial,  saw  that  the  iron  was  at  white  heat, 
and  nerved  the  imperial  right  hand  to  strike ; and  the  framework  of  feudalism 
turned  as  clay  on  the  potter's  wheel.  It  was  he  who,  when  opportrmity  again, 
like  a flame,  softened  the  national  heart  as  wax,  bade  the  Mikado  with  his 
divine  prestige  stamp  it  and  give  to  the  fusing  mass  of  sectionalism  the  express 
image  of  a nation.  At  each  issue  of  an  imperial  mandate  which  pulverized 
ancient  abuses,  dazed  even  his  own  followers,  and  enraged  the  adherents  of  the 
old  regime,  Iwakura  having  counted  the  cost  was  ready  to  shed  blood,  and  ex- 
pected to  do  it.  He  planned^  and  carried  out  the  embassy  round  the  world, 
whose  supreme  object  was  to  obtain  the  erasure  of  the  odious  extra  territorial- 
ity clause  from  the  treaties.  Utterly  fearless  of  all  personal  consequences,  he 
defied  alike  the  swords  of  the  assassins,  and  the  curses  of  the  priests.  Emerg- 
ing scathless  from  repeated  attempts  on  his  life,  after  a giant’s  work,  he  died 
quietly  in  his  bed.  The  Rutgers  graduate  of  ’69  present  at  a dinner  given 
by  Iwakura  at  his  house  near  the  palace,  heard  an  American  lady-  ask  what 
most  impressed  him  when  in  America.  His  answer  quickly  given  was  “the 
strength  of  the  central  government  at  Washington.’’  As  of  all  the  natural  won- 
ders from  the  Pacifle  to  Atlantic,  none  melted  his  high  bred  dignity  into 
wreathes  of  smiles  and  transports  of  childlike  joy  save  the  greatest,  Niagara, 
so  in  things  social  and  political,  nothing  so  moved  this  man  of  courts  and  of 
Asiatic  despotism,  this  believer  in  a divinely  descended  Mikado,  this  centraliz- 
ing Bismark  of  Japan,  as  that  picture  of  unity  under  freedom,  that  reality  of 
mountain-like  stability  amid  fluctuation  of  opinions,  and  of  that  flexible  but 
invincible  arm  of  steel  at  Washington  moved  by  the  will  of  a free  people.  » 
Wonder  of  wonders  to  him,  this  was  in  a republic.  It  ceases  to  be  a marvel 
then  that  Iwakura  returned  to  Japan  with  a transcendently  noble  purpose  to 
educate,  enrich,  uplift  his  people  so  that  his  beloved  country  might  become  peer 
to  the  nations  of  Christendom.  This  explains  why  this  man  of  blood  and  iron 
so  loved  peace,  so  loved  schools,  and  so  opposed  aggressive  war,®  idleness,  in- 
justice, persecution  for  religion’s  sake  and  all  that  in  enlightened  eyes  stunts  a 
nation’s  growth. 

Let  us  look  now  to  the  men  of  the  people — “self-made,”  an  American  would 

1 This  great  embassy,  which  so  helped  to  turn  the  nation’s  face  from  China  to  Chris- 
tendom, was  first  suggested  by  Dr.  Verbeck.  See  Verbeck  of  Japan,  Chapter  XIII.  One- 
half  of  its  personnel  consisted  of  his  former  pupils. 

- Wife  of  the  honored  adviser  to  the  Department  of  Education  from  Rutgers. 

3 The  Mikado’s  Empire,  p.  573-575. 


15 


say — able,  high-motived  heroes  sprung  from  the  rank  and  file.  There  was 
Saigd,  the  heart  and  sword  of  the  revolution,  whose  voice  was  a battalion, 
whose  presence  was  an  army,  who  led  his  disciplined  lads  against  hosts,  and 
with  his  sword  carved  the  way  for  men  of  the  pen.  Would  you  call  him  the 
Grant  of  Japan?  Yes,  in  splendid  physical  presence,  a more  than  Grant,  in 
courage,  persistence,  inborn  military  genius,  wisdom  and  manifested  skill  in 
concentration  of  purpose  and  winning  personal  qualities,  a Grant ; but  in  after 
conduct,  a Robert  Lee  rather.  Like  many  other  revolutionists  who  rouse  the 
sleeping  energies  of  a nation  only  to  see  these  rush  beyond  their  power  to  curb, 
the  movement  of  1868  exceeded  his  wishes,  his  expectations  and  his  control. 
Calhouns  and  Jefferson  Davises  there  are  in  Japan  as  with  us,  and  the  doctrine 
of  State  Right  in  its  most  radical  and  venemous  form,  strengthened  by  too 
easily  believed  misrepresentations  of  his  old  comrades  in  Tokio,  led  Saigo 
to  take  up  the  sword  of  Lee.  Saigo  the  younger  faced  Saigo  the  elder, 
brother  against  brother,  and  Japan  entered  into  a struggle  for  life.  The 
“Satsuma  rebellion”  of  1877  cost  the  nation  seven  months  of  civil  war,  twenty- 
five  thousand  lives  and  one  hundred  million  of  dollars.^  Steam,  electricity  and 
modern  artillery  enabled  Japan  to  maintain  her  existence,  and  the  last  of  her 
many  rebellions  in  the  interest  of  reaction  and  the  irrevocable  past  finds  her 
to-dav  stronger  than  ever  in  national  unity.  In  what  Saigo  failed,  none  other 
will  attempt  to  lead. 

Of  all  the  Japanese  pre-eminent  in  the  marvellous  restoration  period,  from 
1868  to  1877,  the  most  European  looking,  thinking,  and  acting  of  all  was 
Okubo.  He  was  the  interpreter  of  the  West  to  the  East.  Like  Saigo,  he  was 
a man  of  Satsuma,  and  had  been  nourished  in  the  traditions  of  undying 
jealousy  and  hatred  of  the  Yedo  system.  He  became  early  interested  in  that 
literary  movement  whose  goal  was  the  restoration  of  the  Mikado  to  ancient  un- 
divided authority.  He  too  served  behind  the  cannon  when  the  British  bom- 
barded Kagoshima.  At  Kioto  he  aided  to  precipitate  the  crisis  of  six  hundred 
years,  urged  the  unfurling  of  the  Mikado’s  brocade  banner  of  chastisement 
which  stamped  the  Tycoon  as  a rebel,  demanded  the  removal  of  the  capital  to 
Yedo,  and  plead  that  the  divine  emperor  should  come  out  from  beyond  the 
bamboo  screens,  stand  on  the  earth  and  be  the  visible  actual  ruler  of  his  people. 
These  daring  proposals  were  carried  out,  and  thence  forward  the  name  of 
Okubo  is  imperishably  associated  with  the  long  list  of  reforms  which  have 
changed  the  insular  empire  of  Japan  from  an  agglomeration  of  feudal  princi- 
palities into  a compact  modern  state.  In  his  visits  to  America  and  Europe,  that 
strong  dash  of  the  Caucasian  in  his  nature  became  an  ordered  but  irresistible 
force.  Whether  as  envoy  to  China  before  the  dragon-throne  where  the  tiny 
nation  from  the  giant  empire  demanded  and  obtained  justice,  on  the  battle- 
fields, or  at  the  tribunals  which  decided  the  fate  of  reactionary  secession, 
Okubo  was  ever  the  lion-hearted.  His  goal  was  united  enlightened  Japan — a 
nation  in  all  things  and  peer  even  to  England  or  the  United  States.  On  the 

1 See  The  Japanese  Nation  in  Evolution,  and  The  Mikado:  Institution  and  Person, 
for  the  outbreak  and  suppression  of  this  great  uprising,  the  last  struggle  of  feudalism, 
and  for  the  work  of  Okubo,  whose  life  in  French  has  been  written  by  Henri  Courant, 
Paris,  1904.  It  was  he  who  with  Iwakura  signed  the  letter  of  thanks  to  Dr.  J.  M.  Ferris. 


16 


night  of  the  13th  of  May,  1878,  having  been  warned  of  his  impending  assas- 
sination by  fanatics  who  hated  his  progressive  policy,  he  expressed  before  a 
party  of  friends  his  belief  in  the  decree  of  Heaven  that  would  protect  him  if 
his  work  were  done,  but  which  otherwise  would  permit  his  death,  even  though 
he  were  surrounded  by  soldiers.  The  next  day,  while  unarmed  in  broad  day- 
light, he  was  hacked  to  pieces  by  the  swords  of  six  assassins,  runaways  from 
the  rebellion  put  down  six  months  before.  Thus  died  one  of  the  ablest  men 
Japan  ever  produced.  The  Rutgers  graduate  remembers  many  a personal  in- 
terview with  him,  especially  the  last,  when  out  of  his  piercing  black  eye,  out  of 
Ills  heart  as  well  as  his  mouth,  he  uttered  thanks  for  service  done  in  education, 
begged  that  the  meaning  of  the  revolution  in  Japan  might  be  explained  to  the 
American  people,  and  wished  that  Heaven  would  enlighten  his  own  people  as 
to  the  necessity  of  national  unity  and  the  duties  of  the  hour  and  the  age.^ 

Nor  must  we  forget  to  mention  another  figure  prominent  in  the  great  war 
and  reconstruction  i)eriod.  Tf  Saigo  was  the  heart  and  sword  of  the  revolu- 
tion and  Okubo  its  educator.  Kido  was  its  brain  and  pen.  He  too  was  almost 
American  in  his  boyish  appearance.  He  too  tried  odds,  behind  the  cannon, 
with  the  allied  fleet  at  .Shimonoseki.  There  he  was  converted  to  the  idea  of 
the  superiority  of  foreigners,  and  the  impossibility  of  their  expulsion  from 
Japan.  He  was  the  author  of  that  address  to  the  emporer,  purporting  to  come 
from  the  four  great  daimios  of  Satsuma,  Hizen,  Tosa  and  Cho-shiu,  which 
proposed,  and  through  Okubo  and  Iwakura,  resulted  in  the  abolition  of  the 
feudal  system,  and  the  retirement  to  private  life  of  two  hundred  and  seventy 
daimios,  who  relinquished  their  lands,  incomes,  and  the  roster  of  their  military 
retainers  to  the  central  government.  He  founded  the  first  newspaper,  and  the 
first  local  assembly  or  legislature,  and  took  those  initiatory  steps  which  have 
culminated  in  the  promise  of  the  Mikado  to  call  a parliament  and  establish  a 
representative  government  in  1890.^  Of  pre-eminent  political  genius,  stainless 
life  and  gentle  manners,  his  death  was  deplored  by  a nation. 

Time  would  fail  me  to  tell  of  all  the  members  of  that  wonderful  group  of 
men  which  the  train  of  events,  beginning  even  before  Perry’s  arrival  called  out. 
Foreign  influences  excited,  compelled  change,  but  never  could  have  created 
such  men  for  the  hour — true  children  of  Japan,  yet  of  the  nineteenth  century. 
They  were  fitted  to  accomplish  what  no  foreigners  could  even  attempt,  and 
they  did  it.  Surely  the  page  of  history  presents  few  such  records  of  the  re- 
generation of  a nation  in  so  short  a time.  The  rubbish  has  been  cleared  away, 
and  the  foundations  laid  on  which  Christianity  is  now  building  her  stately  tem- 
ple. The  Rutgers  graduates  in  Japan  may  yet  live  to  see  a once  Asiatic  despot- 
ism and  pagan  hermitage  become  a constitutional  monarchy^  and  a Christian 
nation. 

1 In  this  interview,  HatakA-ama  was  interpreter. 

- Fulfilled  grandly  in  1889,  when,  however,  Arinori  klori,  first  envoy  to  the  United 
States,  was  assassinated,  and  Yokoi  Heishiro  given  posthumous  honors.  .See  The  Japanese 
Nation  in  Evolution,  and  The  klikado:  Institution  and  Person. 

3 Prince  Ito  ma}'  be  called  “the  Father  of  the  Constitution,”  which  was  promulgated 
one  hundred  years  after  the  American  document.  Ito  w’as  a profound  student  of  Hamil- 
ton’s w'ork,  “The  Federalist.”  The  two  men,  in  mind  and  ideas  of  government,  greatly 
resembled  each  other.  Ito  w'as  an  Oyomeian. 


17 


A few  words  in  summary  of  the  period  from  1868  to  1885  : 

What  a brilliant  panorama,  yet  full  of  shadow  as  well  as  of  light,  does  our 
theme  call  up.  We  look  again  on  men  who  from  being  hermits  emerged  with 
sword  and  pen  to  carve  out  the  victories  of  war  and  of  peace ; who  tore  down, 
but  who  built  up ; who  faced  oppressor  and  rebel  in  the  field,  and  vanquished 
both;  who  bearded  China  in  Formosa,  while  they  crushed  the  war  spirit  of  the 
filibustering  braves  at  home ; who  won  a “brain-victory”  over  the  insulting 
Coreans  who  paid  over  the  money-bags  of  “indemnity”^  to  the  greedy  diplo- 
mats from  Christian  courts  rather  than  yield  honor  and  the  nation’s  right; 
who  freed  the  slave-like  Etas  or  pariahs ; who  broke  the  fetters  of  caste ; who 
reduced  the  burden  of  taxation  on  the  soil  and  distributed  the  load  on  all 
classes ; who  unsworded  the  swaggering  bullies  and  commuted  the  hereditary 
pensions  of  the  idlers ; who  gave  women  rights  before  the  law ; who  founded 
public  schools,  mails,  light-houses,  railroads,  national-banks,  a national  army 
and  navy ; who  laid  the  foundations  of  constitutional  monarchy  and  represen- 
tative government;  who  first  persecuted  and  then,  as  they  were  enlightened, 
ceased  to  persecute,  and  finally  granted  toleration  to  Christianity.  With  all 
their  faults  and  mistakes,  their  record  is  noble,  and  the  work  done  in  seventeen 
years  makes  brilliant  the  page  of  history  for  all  time. 

The  leading  men  of  Japan ! How  their  faces  gleam  before  us  as  we  write ! 
Some  were  handsome  and  of  noble  bearing,  some  were  ill  favored  and  ugly, 
some  were  tall  and  lion-like  in  their  imposing  personal  bearing,  some  were 
boyish  and  diminutive  in  figure.  What  if  they  all  did  have  the  “Mongolian” 
cast  of  feature ! It  was  not  this  we  saw,  it  was  the  splendid  courage,  the 
quenchless  love  of  country,  the  panting  ambition,  the  unquailing  fire  of  the 
spirit,  the  patience  and  the  perserverance  that  conquer  all  things.  We  count  it 
an  honor  to  have  known  and  talked  with  such  heroes.  In  the  face  of  misunder- 
standing at  home,  the  opposition  of  a bigoted  priesthood  and  a peasantry  steep- 
ed in  superstition,  and  of  a proud  warrior  class ; in  the  teeth  of  the  opposition 
bred  of  the  eager  and  selfish  rivalry  of  foreign  diplomacy ; in  defiant  scorn  of 
the  contemptuous  wrath  of  conservative-China  and  wasp-like  Corea  ;worse  than 
all,  in  spite  of  their  own  mistakes  and  ignorances,  they  have  pressed  nobly  for- 
ward to  the  goal — the  equality  of  Japan,  real  as  well  as  professed,  before  all  the 
world. 

Iwakura,  Hirosawa,®  Okubo,  Kido,  the  mighty  heroes  of  the  revolution, 
Kawaji,  the  loyal  hero;  Sameshima,  the  brilliant  young  diplomat;  Hatakeyama 
the  interpreter,  scholar,  Christian — all  these  are  dead.  Assassination,  as  of 
Lincoln  and  Garfield,  laid  some  in  untimely  graves ; the  overworking  of  delicate 
frames  caused  others  to  fall  on  sleep  too  soon  for  their  country’s  good.  Eno- 
moto,  Ito,  Inouye,  Itagaki,  Fukuzawa,  Katsu,  Kuroda,  Niishima,  Nakamura, 

1 See  Corea : the  Hermit  Nation.  New  York,  1882. 

2 See  Appendix  to  The  Mikado’s  Empire,  Edition  of  1876,  on  The  Shimonoseki  In- 
demnity. The  return  to  Japan  in  1883  of  the  principal,  $785,000  (but  not  the  interest), 
was  largely  the  result  of  the  efforts  of  Rutgers  men.  The  writer,  for  nearly  nine  years, 
bombarded  members  of  Congress  with  the  printed  facts  (from  the  appendix,  as  above), 
and  the  work  of  Dr.  Murray  is  well  known.  See  his  “In  Memoriam.” 

3 See  A Japanese  Statesman  at  Home,  by  E,  H.  House,  Harper’s  Magazine. 


18 


Tcrashima,  Mori,  Oki,  Soyeshima,  Tanaka,^  Yoshida — these  are  all  living,  toil- 
ing yet.  They  are  leaders  indeed,  in  government,  finance,  education,  Christian 
effort,  military  skill,  journalism,  diplomacy,  and  in  the  various  relations  of 
complex  national  life. 

Japan  has  yet  a rugged  road  before  her.  Her  public  men  make  many  mis- 
takes. Human  selfihness  and  low  passions  have  their  place  among  the  men  of 
Japan  as  among  those  in  America,  with  pagans  as  with  so-called  “Christian 
statesmen" ; but  with  the  spirit  of  the  men  of  ’68,  yet  living  and  at  work,  there 
is  hope  for  Japan.  We  speak  as  men,  humanly.  In  the  public  life  of  Japan, 
the  element  of  personal  religion,  loyalty  to  Christ,  as  well  as  unbelief  in  Shintd 
and  Buddhism  and  superstitution,  is  increasing ; and  in  the  increase  of  such 
men — Christians  at  heart,  and  increasingly  Christian  in  life — we  see  bright  rays 
of  jn'omise.-  Japan,  which  having  emerged  from  the  cocoon  woven  by  cen- 
turies of  seclusion,  has  yet  to  escape  the  dangerous  lights  of  bankruptcy,  nihil- 
ism and  agnosticism.® 

1 Fujimaro  Tanaka  ma}^  l)e  called  the  initiator  of  the  government  education  of  girls 
and  women  in  Japan,  Miss  Margaret  Clark  Griffis  having  initial  charge,  during  two  years, 
of  the  first  school  for  the  daughters  of  the  nobles  and  gentry,  founded  in  1872,  which  has 
since  developed  into  the  Peeresses’  School  and  the  Tokyo  Female  Normal  School. 

-See  The  Christian  Movement  in  Japan,  Vols.  I-XTII,  1902  to  1916.  Tokio. 

See  The  Religions  of  Japan.  New  York,  1895.  Since  the  above  was  written,  Japan 
has  emerged  victorious  from  two  wars;  both  of  them  struggles  for  existence,  rather  than 
for  aggression.  Almost  every  one  of  the  victorious  generals,  admirals  and  statemen  were 
men  who  had  been  educated  in  the  Oyomei  philosophy.  It  was,  perhaps,  the  technical 
mastery  of  the  details  of  transportation,  hygiene  and  military  problems,  that  most  sur- 
prised the  world ; though  in  the  observance  of  international  law  and  strict  conformity  to 
treaty  obligations  Japan  has  been  second  to  no  other  nation.  See  the  latest  edition  (1917) 
of  the  Encyclopedia  Americana  and  the  concluding  chapter  of  The  Mikado : Institution 
and  Person. 


NOTES  AND  APPENDICES 


I.  THE  RUTGERS  GRADUATES  IN  JAPAN. 


Name. 


Robert  H.  Prujm  

James  H.  Ballagh  

Henry  Stout  

Robert  Morison  Brown 
William  Elliot  Griffis  . 
Edward  Warren  Clark 


Martin  N.  Wyckoff 


Howard  Harris 

Eugene  S.  Booth  . . . 

N.  H.  Demarest  .... 

Ichizo  Hattori  

Seiichi  Kudo  

Tadanari  Matsudaira 
Kumakichiro  Oishi  . 
Mitsuye  Oi  


Class. 


1833 

1857 

1865 

1865 

1869 

1869 


1872 


1873 

1876 

1880 

1871 

1878 

1879 
1889 


Place. 


jYedo  

(Yokohama  .. 
I Nagasaki  . . . 
Niigata  ( 

; Yokohama  ( 
Fukui  ] 
Tokio  j ■ ■ ■ ' 
Shidzuoka  I 
Tokio  ( 

Fukui  1 
Niigata  . . 
Tokio  J 

Yokohama  . . 

Nagasaki  | 
Yokohama  ( 

Nagasaki  . . . 
Tokio  


Tokio 

Tokio 


Time  in  Japan. 


1861-1865 

1861-1916+ 

1869- 1906 

1866-1900 

1870- 1874 

1871- 1875 

1872- 1911 

1881-1901* 

1879-1916+ 

1883-1900 

1878-1906 

1889- 

1892-1903 


* In  Hawaii,  1901-1915.  Died  1916. 


David  Murray  (Union  ’52),  professor  of  mathematics  and  astronomy  in 
Rutgers  College  from  1865  to  1873,  arrived  in  Japan  June  30,  1873;  left  to 
attend  the  Centennial  Exposition  at  Philadelphia,  in  charge  of  educational 
affairs,  October  12,  1875;  arrived  in  Japan  on  his  return,  December  26,  1876; 
and  left,  finally,  January  23,  1879.  He  was  counselor  to  the  Department  of 
Education  in  Tokio,  and  general  su[)erintendent  of  schools  and  colleges  in 
Japan.  He  supervised  the  publication  of  an  “Outline  History  of  Education 
in  Japan”  (pp.  202;  D.  Appleton  & Co.,  1876).  On  his  departure  from  Japan 
in  1879,  in  acknowledgment  of  his  services,  the  Mikado,  after  granting  him 
audience,  bestowed  his  thanks  personally,  and  awarded  the  decoration  of  the 
third  class  Order  of  Merit  (of  the  Rising  Sun,  like  that  bestowed  on  Dr. 
Verbeck),  while  the  Department  of  Education  made  him  a present  of  $1,500. 
Dr.  Murray  was  Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Regents  of  the  University  of  the 
State  of  New  YMrk,  in  Albany,  N.  Y'’.,  1879-1889.  In  Japan,  Mrs.  Murray,  a 
lady  of  grace  and  influence,  as  true  social  missionary,  aided  greatly  in  the 
friendly  union  of  the  two  nations.  Until  the  day  of  his  death,  as  professor, 
trustee  and  friend,  of  invaluable  judgment  and  unselfish  devotion,  Rutgers 


19 


20 


College  enjoyed  the  benefit  of  Dr.  Murray’s  wisdom  and  attractive  personality. 
As  a voluminous  writer,  he  was  graceful  and  accurate.  His  history  of  Japan 
(Story  of  Japan)  in  the  Story  of  the  Nations  series,  is  one  of  the  best.  In 
1909  a grand  bancpiet  commemorative  of  his  arrival  in  Japan  was  held.  See 
the  Memorial  Volume  (“In  Memoriam”)  by  Rev.  W.  I.  Chamberlain.  Pri- 
vately printed.  New  York,  1913. 

II.  THE  JAPANESE  STUDENTS  IN  AMERICA  AND  EUROPE. 

In  answer  to  inquiries  addressed  to  the  Minister  of  Education  in  Japan, 
after  this  address  was  delivered,  the  following  facts  were  elicited: 

From  causes  easily  understood,  no  complete  record  of  Japanese  young  men 
studying  abroad,  since  the  opening  of  the  empire  to  foreign  intercourse,  has 
been  kept,  but  from  the  year  1865  to  the  year  1884,  the  number  known  to  have 
spent  more  or  less  time  in  Europe  and  America  as  students,  exclusive  of  com- 
missioners, travelers  or  tourists,  was  594. 

The  plan  of  sending  students  to  complete  their  course  of  education  in  for- 
eign countries  is  still  pursued,  as  in  former  years,  but  on  a smaller  scale  and 
in  a wiser  and  more  systematic  way.  For  example,  the  thirty  students  sent 
abroad  from  1875  to  1884,  had  been,  for  the  most  part,  pupils  in  Japan  of  the 
Rutgers  graduate  of  ’69,  and  had  graduated  from  the  Tokio  University,  thus 
completing  at  home  and  abroad  a ten  years’  course.  Their  special  studies  were 
in  law,  chemistry,  engineering,  mining,  etc.  They  were  located  as  follows : 


United  States  9 

England  8 

France  5 

Germany  5 

England  and  Germany 3 


Of  these  thirty,  after  their  arrival  home,  up  to  October,  1884,  two  had  died, 
three  were  in  the  office  of  foreign  affairs,  sixteen  were  professors  in  the  Uni- 
versity of  Tokio  or  connected  with  the  education  department,  nine  were  civil 
or  mining  engineers,  and  one  was  a judge.  The  record  of  their  degrees,  diplo- 
mas, prizes  and  rewards  gained,  in  competition  with  European  and  American 
students,  is  an  extremely  brilliant  one.  In  perspective  from  1916,  the  general 
record  of  the  Japanese  students  educated  abroad  is  excellent. 

In  addition  to  those  who  are  supported  by  the  Department  of  Education, 
there  have  been  since  1885,  and  are  in  the  United  States  and  Europe,  hun- 
dreds, or  in  total,  thousands  of  Japanese  students  pursuing  collegiate,  scien- 
tific or  theological  courses  at  private  expense.  As  a rule,  the  health  of  those 
now  leaving  home  is  now  much  better  than  in  former  years,  and  the  mortality 
is  much  less.  A considerable  number  of  young  men  have  been  sent  for  limited 
periods  of  study  since  1868,  under  the  auspices  of  other  departments  besides 
that  of  Education.  Until  1914,  Germany  was  perhaps  the  country  most  fav- 
ored by  the  students  sent  under  government  auspices,  but  the  United  States 
has  always  had  a number  exceeding  the  total  in  all  other  countries  outside  of 
Japan.  The  first  students  in  America  were  wholly  of  the  samurai  or  two- 


21 


sworded  class,  retainers  of  the  feudal  barons.  After  1870,  when  swords  and 
class  distinctions  in  dress,  and  virtually  all  social  disabilities  were  abolished, 
the  classes  began  commingling.  In  1916,  over  fifty  per  cent  of  all  offices  of 
honor  and  trust  in  Japan  are  held  by  commoners,  and  the  students  abroad  are 
from  every  class  and  social  condition.  All  paths  of  promotion  are  opened  in 
the  Mikado’s  empire. 

III.  JAPANESE  STUDENTS  IN  RUTGERS  COLLEGE. 


Name  as  Recorded. 

Class. 

Course. 

Entered. 

Left. 

I'oro  Kusakabe  

1870 

Scientific 

1867 

December,  1869 

Zun  Zow  Matsmulla  

1871 

Scientific 

1868 

June,  1869 

John  Wesley  Iwoske  Nagai... 

1871 

Scientific 

1868 

December,  1868 

Ko  Zo  Soogiwoora  

1871 

Scientific 

1868 

June,  1869 

Ichy  Zo  Hattori  

1875 

Scientific 

1871 

Graduated  June,  1875 

Shumma  Shirane  

1875 

Scientific 

1871 

One  term 

Nagateru  Yasujiro  Outska.  . . . 

1876 

Classical 

1872 

April,  1874 

Yasutaro  Kara  

1877 

Scientific 

1873 

No  record 

Zen  Kichy  Ongawa  

1877 

Scientific 

1873 

No  record 

Yoshio  Ohswa  

1877 

Scientific 

1873 

No  record 

Kanichero  Taku  

1877 

Scientific 

1874 

April,  1875 

Sei  Ichi  Kudo 

1878 

Classical 

1874 

Graduated  June,  1878 

Tadanari  Matsdaira  

1879 

Scientific 

1875 

Graduated  June,  1879 

Kojiro  Matsugata  

1889 

Scientific 

1885 

Two  years 

Mitsuye  Oi  

1892 

Classical 

Yoshimoro  Takatsuji  

1894 

Scientific 

Daihichiro  Sagara  

1895 

Scientific 

Hope  College. 


Motoichro  Ohgimi  

1879 

Classical 

1875 

Graduated  June,  1879 

Kumage  Kimura  

1879 

Classical 

1875 

Graduated  June,  1879 

IV.  PERSONAL  NOTICES. 

(In  this  list,  the  personal  name  comes  first,  family  name  last.) 

“Satoro  Ise,”  born  in  Kumomoto,  Higo,  was  the  first  student  in  New 
Brunswick  (see  Dr.  Eerris’  letter).  He  studied  at  the  grammar  school  during 
a few  months  and  then  entered  the  Naval  Academy  at  Annapolis,  but  failed  to 
pass  the  examinations.  “He  went  home  deeply  chagrined  and  died  soon 
after.”  He  and  “Numagawa”  were  both  nephews  of  Heishiro  Yokoi  (Yokoi 
Shonan),  an  ardent  disciple  of  the  Oyomei  philosophy,  lecturer  at  Eukui,  and 
at  heart  a Christian.  He  was  assassinated  in  Kioto,  in  1869,  for  proposing 
the  toleration  of  Christianity  and  the  elevation  to  citizenship  of  the  Eta  or 
social  outcasts.  [See  the  author’s  books  on  Japan.]  The  bill  passed  by  Con- 
gress admitting  Japanese  into  the  Annapolis  Naval  Academy  was  introduced 
by  Senator  Erelinghuysen  (Rutgers  ’36),  following  an  open  letter  from  Dr. 
Verbeck.  Here  Admiral  LTriu  was  educated,  and  Great  Britain,  following  the 
precedent,  educated  Admiral  Togo. 

“Saburo  Numagawa,”  of  Kumamoto,  Higo,  was  for  a short  time  in  New 


22 


Brunswick,  but  in  1870  was  obliged  to  return  home  on  account  of  ill  health. 
From  Kumamoto  he  sent  several  students  to  study  in  Fukui.  He  was  a noble 
specimen  of  a Japanese  samurai  and  on  his  return  was  influential  in  founding 
a school  in  his  native  city,  before  he  died  in  1871.  This  school  was  for  several 
years  in  charge  of  Captain  Janes,  who  had  been  recommended  by  Dr.  J.  M. 
Ferris.  It  became  noted  for  its  excellence.  The  “Kumamoto  Band”  of  stu- 
dents was  famous  for  its  eminent  men,  several  of  them  becoming  Christian 
pastors  (see  Dr.  M.  L.  Gordon,  “An  American  Missionary  in  Japan,”  Boston, 
1892).  Ise,  Numagaw'a  and  Katz  were,  for  a time,  members  of  Instructor 
Hasbrouck’s  household. 

Taro  Kusakabe  (his  true  name)  was  a native  of  Fukui,  Echizen  of  the 
samurai  class,  and,  as  his  name  implies,  was  the  first  born  of  his  parents.  He 
was  an  admirable  mathematician  and  an  excellent  scholar.  Entering  Rutgers 
College  in  1867,  he  would,  had  he  lived,  have  graduated  with  honors  in  the 
class  of  1870.  Attempting  in  his  ardor  to  do  many  years’  work  in  a short  time, 
his  health  gave  way.  He  died  April  13,  1870,  of  consumption.  The  writer, 
who  had  taught  him  Latin,  met  his  father  in  Fukui  and  presented  to  him  the 
Phi  Beta  Kappa  gold  key  sent  by  the  chapter  in  Rutg'ers  College.  His  books 
were  added  to  the  library  of  the  School  of  English  and  Science  in  Fukui,  now 
the  High  School,  containing  over  six  hundred  pupils.  (See  The  Mikado’s  Em- 
pire, p.  430.) 

Tetsunosuke  Tomita  (his  true  name),  a native  of  Sendai,  born  in  1855, 
made  his  home  for  fifteen  months  with  Rev.  E.  T.  Corwin,  D.D.  After  study 
at  New'  Brunswdek,  he  entered  Whitney's  Business  College  at  Newark.  He 
has  been  identified  chiefly  with  diplomacy,  banking,  and  insurance.  After 
serving  as  consul  of  Japan  in  New  York  and  San  Francisco,  and  secretary  of 
legation  in  London,  he  became  a bank  president  in  Tokio  and  mayor  of  the 
great  city.  He  is  a member  of  the  House  of  P'eers,  has  been  decorated  by  the 
Emperor,  and  is  now  president  of  the  Yokohama  Fire  and  Marine  Transporta- 
tion Insurance  Company. 

“Kozo  Soogiwoora,”  the  assumed  name  of  Yoshinari  Hatakeyama,  born  in 
Kogoshima,  Satsuma,  was  among  the  number  who  clandestinely  left  Japan, 
taking  other  names  in  order  to  avoid  the  vigilance  of  the  Shogun’s  spies.  Fall- 
ing into  the  hands  of  the  socialistic  colonists,  Thomas  Lake  Harris  and  Law- 
rence Oliphant,  he  worked  on  a farm  at  Brocton,  N.  Y.,  near  Lake  Erie, 
gratuitously,  for  the  purpose,  they  told  him,  “of  crucifying  the  flesh,  that  he 
might  receive  true  knowledge.”  Escaping  from  them  and  reaching  New 
Brunswick,  he  entered  for  the  scientific  course  of  Rutgers  College  in  1867, 
remaining  until  1871.  Ordered  to  attach  himself  as  interpreter  to  the  em- 
bassy, he  travelled  round  the  world,  meeting  nearly  every  crowned  head  in 
Europe.  Arriving  in  Japan  in  the  autumn  of  1873,  he  was  made  an  officer  of 
three  departments  of  the  government.  Interior,  Education,  Foreign  Affairs. 
As  director  of  the  Imperial  University  of  Tokio  he  did  much  to  advance  its 
prosperity  and  elevation.  Incessant  application  and  overwork,  aggravated  by 
the  importunity  of  office  seekers,  brought  on  consumption.  He  visited  the 
Centennial  Exposition  at  Philadelphia  in  1876  in  the  hope  of  recovery,  but 


23 


died  on  his  way  home  at  sea.  Hatakeyama  became  a Christian,  and  in  1870 
united  with  the  Second  Reformed  Church,  Rev.  C.  D.  Hartranft,  pastor,  and 
both  at  home  and  abroad  lived  a consistent  life,  notwithstanding  that  at  his 
death  he  was  buried  with  high  official  and  pagan  honors.  Though  not  so  bril- 
liant as  Kusakabe,  he  was  a hard  plodder,  and  Japan  lost  in  him  a noble  son. 

“Zun  Zo  Matzmulla”  (Junso  Matsumura),  a native  of  Kagoshima,  Sat- 
suma,  after  preparatory  study  in  the  grammar  school,  entered  Rutgers  College 
in  1868,  and  remained  one  year.  He  was  a thorough  student,  of  quick  appre- 
hension and  clear  understanding.  He  took  the  regular  course  at  Annapolis 
Naval  Academy,  and  returning  home  received  a commission  as  captain  in  the 
Imperial  navy.  He  was  in  command  of  an  iron-clad,  and  rose  to  be  a rear 
admiral.  He  suffered  blindness  in  his  later  years. 

“John  Wesley  Iwoske  Nagai”  (Kiyonari  Yoshida),  was  born  in  Satsuma 
in  1845.  He  left  Japan  in  1865,  visited  the  United  States  and  lived  two  years 
in  London,  studying  at  University  College.  He  afterward  studied  at  Munson, 
Mass.,  with  the  Rev.  S.  R.  Brown,  D.D.,  and  entered  Rutgers  College  in  Sep- 
tember, 1868,  remaining  until  December  of  the  same  year.  On  his  return  to 
Japan  he  was  made  chief  clerk  of  the  finance  department,  appointed  commis- 
sioner of  internal  revenue,  and  in  1871,  having  been  appointed  assistant  minis- 
ter of  finance,  he  visited  Europe  and  the  United  States  to  negotiate  a loan  of 
$12,0CX),000,  in  which  he  was  very  successful.  From  1874  to  1882  he  was  the 
Mikado’s  minister  plenipotentiary  in  Washington.  He  was  vice-minister  of 
Agriculture  and  Commerce.  He  introduced  the  American  national  bank  sys- 
tem in  Japan,  which,  however,  was  afterwards  relinquished  for  the  Belgian 
system.  He  served  for  a time  as  vice-minister  of  Foreign  Affairs.  He  was 
made  viscount  in  1887,  and  a member  of  the  Imperial  Privy  Council.  He  died 
in  1891. 

Ichizo  Hattori  (his  true  name),  a native  of  Yamaguchi,  in  Choshiu,  was 
born  in  February,  1851.  Fie  entered  Rutgers  College  and  took  the  full  scien- 
tific course,  graduating  in  1875.  He  delivered  at  commencement  an  oration 
in  Japanese.  Returning  to  Japan,  he  was  made  vice-director  of  the  Language 
or  Preparatory  School  of  the  Tokio  University,  and  rose  to  be  vice-president 
of  the  University  and  dean  of  the  law  department.  Later  he  was  appointed 
commissioner  to  the  New  Orleans  exposition.  He  was  sixteen  years  in  the 
educational  service  of  the  Government,  and  later  in  municipal  administration, 
being,  in  the  period  from  1891  to  1900,  governor  of  three  cities  and  prefectures, 
Iwate,  Hiroshima,  and  Nagasaki.  He  has  been  for  some  years  Governor  of 
Hiogo  prefecture,  one  of  the  most  important  in  the  empire,  with  his  office  at 
Kotxi.  He  received  the  degree  of  LL.D.  from  Rutgers  College  in  19(X).  He 
was  made  a member  of  the  House  of  Peers  in  1903,  and  has  been  decorated  by 
the  Emperor  with  the  First  Order  of  Merit. 

“Shumma  Shirane’’  (Shiuma  Shirane),  after  spending  some  time  in  the 
family  of  Instructor  Isaac  Hasbrouck,  in  1870  and  1871,  with  preparatory 
studies  in  the  Grammar  School,  entered  Rutgers  College  in  1871,  but  remained 
less  than  one  term.  He  was  temporarily  connected  with  the  United  States 
Navy  Department,  and  was  for  some  years  a noted  ship-builder  at  Kanagawa, 


24 


Japan.  Now  retired.  Decorated  by  the  Emperor,  February  1,  1909,  for  hav- 
ing patented  a folding  boat  for  the  Japanese  army. 

Nagateru  Yasujiro  Outska  (Utsuka),  after  instruction  by  Instructor  Has- 
brouck,  in  his  family,  entered  Rutgers  College  in  1872  and  remained  one  year. 

Yasutaro  Kara,  of  Tamba,  entered  Rutgers  College,  but  left  on  account  of 
poor  health.  In  Japan  he  became  Director  of  the  Forestry  Bureau  in  the  De- 
partment of  Agriculture  and  Commerce. 

“Yoshiro  Ohsawa”  (Osawa)  was  admitted  into  Rutgers  College,  but  left  to 
study  in  Brooklyn,  his  object  being  the  mastery  of  naval  architecture  at  the 
Navy  Yard. 

“Zen  Kichy  Ohgawa”  (Zenkichi  Ogawa)  was  born  in  Yedo,  in  1855,  and 
studied  in  two  schools  for  English  and  in  the  Tokio  University.  He  came  to 
New  Brunswick  in  1873,  having  had  a thorough  education  in  English.  Return- 
ing to  Japan,  he  became  one  of  the  most  prominent  and  successful  business 
men,  being  connected  with  many  corporations.  Besides,  in  1905,  going  to 
England  to  arrange  for  a direct  line  of  steamers  from  Japan  to  England,  he 
was  active  in  the  transportation  enterprises  of  the  Russian  war.  He  has  been 
decorated  by  the  Emperor  and  is  still  in  active  business,  being  now  president 
of  the  Meiji  Sugar  Refinery  Company. 

Seiichi  Kudo,  a native  of  Tokio,  came  to  New  Brunswick  m 1872,  unable 
to  converse  in  English.  He  became  a member  of  the  household  of  Rev.  E.  T. 
Corwin,  at  Millstone,  and  a member  of  the  Reformed  Church.  He  entered 
Rutgers  College  and  ranked  among  the  first  nine  in  the  class,  graduating  in  the 
year  1878.  He  was  active  in  educational  service  in  Japan,  being  professor  of 
physics  at  Sapporo  Agricultural  College,  1881-1883,  later  teaching  in  Tokio, 
and  assistant  for  a time  to  Dr.  David  Murray;  He  died  December  15,  1906. 

Moto  Oghimi  (Moto-ichiro  Ogimi),  of  Shidudka,  Suruga,  who  had  been  a 
civil  judge  in  Jajrau,  came  to  Holland,  Michigan,  about  1872  or  1873.  He  be- 
came a Christian,  united  with  the  church,  and  passed  through  the  full  course 
of  preparatory  study  in  the  Grammar  School,  and  in  Hope  College.  Coming 
to  New  Brunswick,  he  took  the  full  course  in  the  Theological  Seminary,  and 
was  ordained  by  the  Classis  of  Albany  in  1882.  He  was  pastor  of  the  church 
in  Kojimachi,  and  lecturer  on  Church  History  in  the  Union  Theplogical  Semi- 
nary of  Tokio,  maintained  by  the  united  missions  under  the  Presbyterian  form 
of  government,  and  in  December,  1885,  was  Moderator  of  the  Third  General 
Assembly.  He  has  been  for  some  years  connected  with  the  Methodist  Protest- 
ant Church. 

Kumage  Kimura,  coming  to  Holland,  Michigan,  about  the  same  time  with 
Ogimi,  passed  through  the  full  course  of  Grammar  .School  and  Hope  College, 
and  entered  the  Theological  Seminary  at  New  Brunswick.  He  was  licensed 
to  preach  May  23,  and  ordained  by  the  Classis  of  New  Brunswick,  June  4, 
1882,  signing  his  subscription  in  Japanese  and  English.  He  has  been  for  many 
years  pastor  of  the  Japanese  Church  at  Nagano,  the  widow  of  Dr.  M.  N. 
Wyckoff  periodically  assisting  in  the  work  for  women  in  this  city. 

Koroku  Katz  (K.  Katsu),  the  son  of  the  famous  minister  of  the  Sho-gun 
(Katsu  Awa),  who  was  present  at  the  signing  of  Perry’s  treaty,  saved  Yedo 


25 


from  conflagration  in  1868,  navigated  the  first  Japanese  steamer  across  the 
Pacific,  and  was  the  Mikado’s  minister  of  marine  or  secretary  of  the  navy. 
K.  Katsu  came  to  New  Brunswick,  studying  in  the  Grammar  School  two  years 
or  more,  passed  through  the  Annapolis  Naval  Academy.  He  served  as  officer 
in  the  Imperial  Japanese  navy,  but  was  for  some  years  crippled  with  rheuma- 
tism, dying  in  comparatively  early  life. 

Hiraka,  a law  student  in  Boston,  but  known  in  New  Brunswick,  became  on 
his  return  to  Japan  a judge  in  the  new  courts  which  had  been  reorganized  on 
Occidental  system. 

Masashi  Nara,  of  Nambu,  on  returning  to  Japan  was  made  paymaster  in 
the  Imperial  navy. 

Juisuke  Yamamoto,  of  Yamaguchi,  Cho-shiu,  was  prepared  in  the  Grammar 
School  at  New  Brunswick  for  the  scientific  course,  but  entered  the  Rensselaer 
Polytechnic  Institute  at  Troy,  N.  Y.,  graduating  in  full  course.  He  was  a 
civil  engineer  in  the  Department  of  P'ublic  Works  in  Japan. 

“Yonosuke  Mitsi”  (Yonosuke  Mitsui)  and  “Yozo  Mitsi”  (Yozo  Mitsui) 
were  connected  with  the  family  governing  the  great  commercial  house  of  that 
name  in  Japan,  which  has  agencies  in  most  of  the  large  cities  of  the  world 
(25  Madison  avenue.  New  York),  spent  some  time  at  New  Brunswick  as  stu- 
dents. On  going  back  to  Japan,  they  entered  the  banking  business  in  Kioto. 
Yozo  Mitsui  died  a few  years  ago. 

Hikoichi  Orita,  born  at  Kagoshima,  in  Satsuma,  1850,  came  to  New  Bruns- 
wick in  October,  1870,  and  was  for  two  years  a member  of  Dr.  E.  T.  Corwin’s 
household  at  Millstone.  In  1872  he  entered  Princeton  College,  being  gradu- 
ated in  1876  and  delivering  an  oration  in  his  native  language.  He  was  bap- 
tized by  Dr.  McCosh,  not  as  a member  of  any  particular  Church,  but  as  a 
Christian.  In  Japan  he  served  in  the  Foreign  Office,  assisted  Dr.  Murray  as 
interpreter,  for  some  time,  and  was  principal  of  two  or  three  of  the  largest 
schools.  In  1910  he  resigned  from  educational  service  after  nineteen  years 
activity  and  was  nominated  member  of  the  House  of  Peers. 

Naibu  Kanda,  the  son  of  an  eminent  progressive  Liberal  in  Tokio,  whom 
the  writer  knew,  came  to  the  United  States  at  the  age  of  fourteen.  After  six 
months’  stay  with  Dr.  Corwin,  he  went  to  Amherst  College,  graduating  in  full 
course,  spending  altogether  five  or  six  years  in  this  country.  He  is  one  of  the 
best  speakers  in  English  in  Japan,  a prominent  Christian,  and  has  been  very 
active  in  the  general  work  of  uniting  the  two  civilizations.  He  went  to  Europe 
in  1911  on  educational  inspection,  and  visited  America  with  the  commercial 
embassy  in  1912.  Is  a member  of  the  House  of  Peers.  He  has  exerted  vast 
influence  on  the  introduction  of  the  English  language  in  Japan,  and  the  best 
methods  of  teaching  and  acquiring  it. 

Kotaro  Asahi,  born  in  Kyoto,  son  of  the  junior  premier  and  Prince  To- 
mono  Iwakura,  was,  with  his  brother,  a pupil  of  Dr.  Verbeck  at  Nagasaki.  He 
came  to  the  United  States  in  1868.  Though  in  delicate  health,  he  spent  over 
two  years  in  the  Grammar  School.  In  Japan  he  held  the  office  of  Secretary  of 
the  Great  Government  Council  and  rose  to  be  Chamberlain  to  the  Emperor  and 
Minister  of  the  Imperial  Household.  He  died  March  10,  1914.  One  of  his 


26 


kinsmen,  Tomotsuna,  born  in  1842,  is  chief  ritualist  at  the  sacred  ceremonies 
on  great  occasions  in  the  Imperial  Court.  The  present  head  of  the  Iwakura 
house,  who  was  born  in  1878,  is  named  Tomoharu,  all  descendants  of  Prince 
Tomomi  Iwakura  taking  the  hrst  syllable  of  the  founder’s  personal  name  with 
theirs. 

Kotaro  Tats  (Tomotsune  Iwakura),  after  two  years’  study  at  New  Brims- 
wick,  accompanied  his  father,  the  chief  of  the  embassy  to  Europe,  and  studied 
several  years  at  Oxford.  After  serving  as  secretary  of  legation,  he  held  sev- 
eral offices  in  the  Imperial  Household,  among  others  that  of  vice-chamberlain 
to  the  Emperor.  He  died  in  1912. 

Samro  Takaki,  a native  of  Sendai,  was  a diligent  student  at  the  Grammar 
School.  He  was  afterwards  consul  of  Japan  in  New  York  and  San  Fran- 
cisco. In  Japan  he  was  for  several  years  Director  of  the  Doshin  Kai-sha,  a 
large  silk  company  in  Yokohama. 

“Nambu  Okuma,”  as  he  was  called  in  New  Brunswick,  in  1871,  was  from 
the  province  of  Nambu,  and  in  Japan  married  a daughter  of  Okuma,  now 
premier,  but  later  was  divorced.  He  was  for  a while  an  officer  in  the  land 
survey,  and  long  in  educational  service. 

Tsumura,  friend  of  Shirane,  was  a pupil  of  Instructor  Isaac  Hasbrouck,  in 
mathematics. 

Kanichiro  Taku,  of  Saga,  in  Hojen,  entered  the  class  of  1877  in  Rutgers 
College,  but  left  in  1875.  He  died  in  1901. 

Togoora,  a Japanese  student  in  Albany,  under  Principal  Merrill  E.  Gates, 
expected  to  enter  Rutgers  College.  He  left  an  album  containing  about  twenty 
Japanese  signatures. 

S.  Matsuda  was  at  New  Brunswick  in  1871. 

Kodzu  was  a student  at  New  Brunswick  in  the  late  eighties. 

Mitsuye  Oi,  of  Yokosuka,  was  graduated  from  Rutgers  College  in  1892 
and  from  the  New  Brunswick  Theological  Seminary  in  1895.  He  died  Octo- 
ber 1,  1903. 

Kenjiro  Yamakawa  was  a very  diligent  student  while  in  New  Brunswick. 
He  studied  also  in  Europe,  and  on  his  return  to  Japan  was  made  assistant  pro- 
fessor of  physics  in  the  Imperial  University  of  Tokio  in  1872.  He  was  given 
the  degree  of  D.Sc.,  and  after  some  years  of  service  as  professor,  was  made 
])resident  of  the  university.  He  resigned  in  1905,  because  dissatisfied  with  the 
interference  of  the  executive  authorities,  who  required  the  resignation  of 
Professor  Tomizu,  because  he  had  written  something  political,  which  dis- 
pleased the  Government.  From  1906  he  had  charge  of  the  Technical  College 
founded  near  Wakamatsu  by  Mr.  Yasukawa,  the  millionaire  coal  miner,  but 
has  been  recently  reinstated  as  the  president  of  the  Imperial  University. 

Takemura,  on  his  return  to  Japan,  entered  the  Finance  Department  in 
Tokio. 

Okubo  became  Curator  in  the  Botanical  Gardens  of  the  Imperial  Univer- 
sity of  Tokio. 

Kyo  Kawamura,  after  leaving  New  Brunswick,  spent  some  time  in  Italy 
studying  art.  On  his  return  he  became  one  of  the  most  famous  artists  in  the 
empire.  He  was  still  living  in  1912. 


27 


Tugawa  was  the  first  Japanese  who  came  to  Holland,  Michigan.  Becom- 
ing a Christian,  he  united  with  the  Reformed  Church,  Rev.  A.  T.  Stewart, 
D.D.,  pastor.  He  did  not  enter  college. 

Osama  Nagura,  of  Shidzuoka,  Japan,  became  a surgeon  in  the  Japanese 
army. 

Tadanari  Matsudaira  was  born  in  Uyeda,  in  Shinano,  and  by  hereditary 
succession  became  daimio,  or  territorial  feudal  ruler  of  his  province.  He 
retired  to  private  life  in  1871,  after  the  abolition  of  the  feudal  system.  He 
entered  Rutgers  College,  taking  the  full  scientific  course,  and  was  graduated  in 
1879.  He  married  the  daughter  of  Mr.  William  Sampson,  the  well-known  book- 
seller in  New  Brunswick.  Two  sons  were  born  of  the  union,  one  of  whom 
was  recently  in  Washington,  D.  C.,  and  the  other  is  an  officer  in  Manila,  P.  I. 
Under  the  peerage  regulations  promulgated  by  the  Mikado  in  1884,  he  was 
made  viscount  and  was  for  a time  an  officer  in  the  Department  of  Foreign 
Affairs.  Especially  interested  in  the  advancement  of  education  in  his  old 
province,  he  gave  money  in  considerable  sums  for  this  purpose.  He  died  in 
St.  Louis,  Mo.,  some  years  ago. 

Kojiro  Matsugata  (Kojiro  Matsukata)  was  the  third  son  of  the  famous 
premier,  the  Marquis  Matsukata,  who  achieved  the  remarkable  feat  of  chang- 
ing the  standard  of  Japan  from  silver  to  gold,  and  born  in  Kagoshima,  Sat- 
suma.  On  coming  to  New  Brunswick,  he  prepared  at  the  Grammar  School 
and  entered  the  scientific  course  of  Rutgers  College.  He  then  studied  in  the 
Law  School  of  Yale  University,  graduating  with  honors  (LL.B.,  1888;  M.L., 
1889;  D.C.L.).  On  returning  to  Japan,  he  devoted  himself,  from  the  first, 
exclusively  to  business,  being  president  or  director  of  various  corporations. 
In  1914  he  was  president  of  the  Kawasaki  Dockyard  Company  and  active 
director  of  several  other  leading  concerns  in  central  Japan. 

Kumakichiro  Oichi  was  graduated  in  the  Rutgers  College  class  of  1889, 
and  on  returning  to  Japan  became  a journalist,  living  at  Waseda,  Tokio. 

Mr.  S.  Tsuchiya  was  in  the  Grammar  School  in  1885. 

Mr.  Masaichi  Noma  was  born  in  1864,  in  the  province  of  Satsuma.  After 
studying  in  the  Grammar  School  at  New  Brunswick,  he  was  graduated  in  the 
Law  School  of  Columbia  University  and  entered  service  in  the  Foreign  Office 
and  in  diplomacy,  serving  at  the  legation  at  Washington,  in  the  consulates  in 
New  York,  Mexico,  Bombay,  Hong  Kong  and  Manila.  From  1909  he  has 
been  secretary  of  legation  and  consul  at  Siam. 

Yoshimaro  Takatsuji,  of  Tokio,  was  in  Rutgers  College,  in  the  class  of 
1894. 

Daihichiro  Sagara,  of  Tokio,  Japan,  was  in  Rutgers  College,  in  the  class 
of  1895. 

Satori  Kato  was  a special  student  in  the  New  Brunswick  Seminary,  1891-92. 

The  causes  of  the  short  stay  and  brief  course  of  study  of  most  of  these 
early  students  are  not  to  be  sought  in  the  national  character  or  temperament, 
but  in  the  imperative  demand  for  men  who  were  both  young  and  who  had 
been  abroad.  Some  of  them  left  under  stress  of  financial  necessity,  but  the 
majority,  probably,  at  call  of  their  superiors  for  instant  service  at  home.  This 


28 


was  the  situation  until  the  higher  modern  education  was  well  started  in  Japan 
in  the  eighties.  In  general,  looking  at  the  record  of  the  Japanese  students,  both 
at  New  Brunswick  and  in  America,  it  is  the  verdict  of  science,  without  senti- 
ment, to  declare  that,  with  a few  brilliant  exceptions,  or  'for  obvious  reasons, 
involving  rank,  influence  or  opportunity  in  Japan,  the  best  record  of  achieve- 
ment has  been  made  by  those  who  were  most  earnest  and  most  thorough  in 
their  studies,  while  at  home  and  in  America. 

V.  INSCRIPTIONS  ON  THE  MONUMENTS  IN  THE  JAPANESE 
LOT  IN  WILLOW  GROVE  CEMETERY,  NEW  BRUNSWICK,  N.  J. 

In  Memory  of 
IRIYE  OTOJIRO, 

Chioshiu,  Japan, 

Died  at  New  York  City,  N.  Y. 

March  20,  1873. 

Aged  19  Years. 

In  Memory  of 
JINZABURO  OBRATA. 

KOKURA,  JAPAN. 

Died  at  Brooklyn,  L.  I. 

Jan.  20,  1873. 

Aged  29  Years. 

In  Memory  of 
SOSUKE  MATSGATA. 

SATSZMA,  JAPAN. 

Who  Died  at  Farmington,  Conn. 

Aug.  13,  1872. 

Aged  22  Years. 

In  Memory  of 
KIJORO  HASEGAWA. 

HIMEJI,  JAPAN. 

W ho  Died  at  Troy,  N.  Y. 

Nov.  18,  1871. 

Aged  23  Years. 

TARO  KUSAKABE.* 

A Native 

OF  ACHIZEN,  JAPAN. 

Died  April  13,  1870. 

Aged  25  Years. 

In  Memory  of 
SHINZIRO  KAWASAKI. 

KAGOSHIMA,  JAPAN. 

Died  at  Poughkeepsie,  N.  Y. 

March  24,  1885. 

Aged  21  Years. 

* A student  of  Rutgers  College,  class  of  ’70,  and  a member  of  Phi  Beta  Kappa. 

The  Willow  Grove  Cemetery  Association  was  incorporated  in  February,  1851,  and  the 
cemetery  is  still  in  use  and  kept  in  excellent  order.  The  last  Japanese  buried  in  this 
cemetery  was  in  1886. 


29 


ERECTED 

TO  THE  MEMORY  OF 
J.  OBATA, 

By  His  Associates  in  The 
KEI-0  GIJIKU 
Tokio,  Japan. 

In  Memory  of 
TATSUZO  SAKATANI 
A Native  of  Bitchu,  Japan 
Died  at  New  York  City,  N.  Y. 

April  14,  1886. 

Aged  26  Years. 

INFANT 
DAUGHTER  OF 
SAMRO  and  SUMA 
TAKAKI, 

Died  September  5, 

1877. 

VI.  MISSIONARIES  OF  THE  REFORMED  CHURCH  IN  AMERICA 

IN  JAPAN.* 

Rev.  S.  R.  Brown,  D.D.f  and  Mrs.  Brownf 1859-1879 

D.  B.  Simmons,  M.D.t  and  Mrs.  Simmonsf 1859-1860 

Miss  C.  Adriancef  1859-1860 

Rev.  G.  F.  Verbeck,  D.D.f  and  Mrs.  Verbeckf 1859-1898 

Rev.  James  H.  Ballagh,  D.D.,  and  Mrs.  Ballaghf 1861-1916+ 

Rev.  Henry  Stout,  D.D.,  and  Mrs.  StoutJ 1869-1906 

Miss  Mary  E.  Kidder  (Mrs.  E.  Rothesay  Miller)f 1869-1909 

Rev.  C.  H.  Wolff  and  Mrs.  Wolff 1871-1876 

Miss  S.  K.  M.  Hequembourg  1872-1874 

Miss  Emma  C.  Witbeck 1874-1882 

Rev.  E.  Rothesay  Millerf  1875-1916 

Rev.  J.  L.  Amerman,  D.D.,  and  Mrs.  Amermanf 1876-1893 

Miss  Harriet  L.  Winn 1878-1887 

Miss  Elizabeth  F.  Farrington 1878-1879 

Miss  Mamie  J.  Farrington 1878-1879 

Rev.  Eugene  S.  Booth  and*  Mrs.  Booth 1879-1916+ 

Miss  Carrie  E.  Ballagh 1881-1885 

Prof.  Martin  N.  Wyckoff,  Sc.D.f  and  Mrs.  Wyckoff 1881-1916+ 

Miss  M.  Leila  Winn 1882-1916+ 

Rev.  Howard  Harris  and  Mrs.  Harris 1881-1905 


* Most,  if  not  all,  of  the  male  missionaries  serving  in  Japan  since  1885  are  graduates 
of  Hope  College  or  other  institutions.  A number  of  the  lady  missionaries  have  been  stu- 
dents in  college  or  are  graduates  of  women’s  colleges,  and  some  who,  through  marriage, 
entered  the  service  of  other  Boards  or  Churches,  are  still  living  and  at  work. 


30 


Miss  Mary  E.  Brokaw 1884-1899 

Miss  Anna  DeF.  Thompson 1887-1908 

Miss  Mary  Deyo 1888-1905 

Miss  Julia  Moulton 1888-1916-)- 

Rev.  Jacob  Poppen,  Ph.D.,  and  Mrs.  P’oppen 1896-1898 

Rev.  Frank  S.  Scudder  and  Mrs.  Scudder 1897-(In  Hawaii)  1916-j- 

Mrs.  J.  D.  Schenck 1897-1904 

Miss  Harriet  Wyckoff  (Mrs.  John  F.  Hail ) 1898-1904 

Rev.  A.  Oilmans,  D.D.,  and  Mrs.  Oilmans 1904-1916-1- 

Rev.  and  Mrs.  D.  C.  Ruigh 1901-1916-}- 

Miss  Jennie  M.  Kuyper 1905-1916-)- 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Walter  E.  Hoffsomer 1907-1916-)- 

Rev.  Hubert  Kuyper 1911-1916-)- 

Rev.  N.  H.  Demarest 1912-1914 

Miss  May  B.  Demarest 1912-1914 

Rev.  David  Van  Strien  and  Mrs  Van  Strienf  (1913) 1912-1916-1- 

Rev.  and  Mrs.  Luman  J.  Shafer 1912-1916-f- 

Miss  Florence  E.  Dick 1912-1914 

Miss  Evelyn  F.  Oilmans 1914-1916-1- 

Miss  Janet  Oilmans 1914-1916-)- 

Mrs.  R.  L.  Irvine 1887-1893 

Miss  C.  B.  Lanterman 1890-1892 

Rev.  A.  Pieters  and  Mrs.  Pieters 1891-1916-)- 

Miss  S.  M.  Couch 1892-1916-1- 

Rev.  H.  V.  S.  Peeke  and  Mrs.  Peeke 1893-1916-)- 

Miss  H.  M.  Lansing 1893-1916-)- 

Miss  M.  E.  Duryea 1893-1897 

Miss  Anna  K.  Stryker 1897-1900 

Miss  A.  B.  Stout 1898-1904 

Rev.  C.  M.  Myers  1899-1904 

Rev.  Garret  Hondelink  and  Mrs.  Hondelink 1903-1916-)- 

Mr.  H.  V.  S.  Peeke 1888-1892 

Miss  A.  B.  Stout 1891-1895 

Mr.  A.  A.  Davis 1896-1898 

Miss  Grace  Thomasma 1904-1913 

Miss  Jennie  A.  Pieters 1904-1916-)- 

Mr.  Anthony  Walvoord  and  Mrs.  Walvoord 1905-1916-)- 

Rev.  Willis  G.  Hoekje  and  Mrs.  Hoekje 1907-1916-)- 

Miss  Jennie  Buys 1909-1915 

Miss  Jeane  Noordhoff 1911-1916-)- 

Rev.  Stephen  W.  Ryder  and  Mrs.  Ryder 1913-1916-)- 

Miss  Hendrine  E.  Hospers 1913-1916-1- 

Rev.  Alex.  Van  Bronkhorst  and  Mrs.  Van  Bronkhorst 1916-)- 


t Deceased. 


31 


VII.  BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

Graduates  R.  C. 

R.  H.  Pruyn.  See  U.  S.  Diplomatic  Correspondence,  1862-66.  Voluminous 
and  of  great  historical  value. 

J.  H.  Ballagh.  Translations  of  Westminster  Catechism  and  hymns ; Spir- 
ited and  valuable  letters  to  periodicals  in  Japan  and  to  The  Christian  Intelli- 
gencer, from  1860.  Glimpses  of  Old  Japan  (pp.  126),  by  Mrs.  Ballagh,  Tokio, 
1908. 

H.  Stout.  Translations;  Inscriptions  in  Shimabara  and  Amakusa,  in 
Transactions  of  the  Asiatic  Society  of  Japan,  Vol.  VII,  1879;  Manual  of  Sa- 
cred History,  1883;  Manual  of  Church  History,  1884;  text-books  in  theology. 

W.  E.  Griffis.  See  the  bibliography  published  by  Rutgers  College,  in  1916, 
“Who’s  Who,’’  and  various  works  of  reference.  Series  of  primers  and  spelling 
books  (5)  for  Japanese,  San  Francisco,  1873;  guide  books  and  maps  for 
Yokohama  and  Tokio;  a dozen  books  on  China,  Korea  and  Japan;  articles  in 
encyclopedias  and  text-books,  and  about  one  thousand  contributions,  with 
titles,  from  1868  to  191 6-j-  on  Oriental,  European  and  American  subjects,  in 
the  N.  A.  Review,  The  Nation,  The  Independent,  The  Outlook,  The  Christian 
Intelligencer,  and  other  periodicals.  Was  called  out  to  Japan  as  the  first  for- 
eigner, under  the  charter-oath  of  the  Emperor,  on  his  installation,  in  1868,  to 
seek  for  knowledge  and  expert  assistance  in  all  parts  of  the  world,  in  order  to 
relay  the  foundations  of  the  empire.  This  oath,  foundation  of  the  new  nation, 
was  the  Oyomei  philosophy  put  into  practice.  Application  came  to  the  writer 
from  the  baron  of  Echizen  and  the  authorities  of  Fukui  through  Dr.  Verbeck, 
Dr.  Ferris  and  the  Faculty  of  Rutgers  College  who  made  choice,  of  the  gradu- 
ate of  ’69.  Arrived  at  Yokohama,  December  29,  1870;  in  Tokio,  January  2, 
1871;  in  Fukui,  March  4,  1871.  Feudal  system  abolished  October  1,  1871. 
Called  to  Tokio,  following  a letter  addressed  to  the  Government,  to  organize  a 
Technological  school,  and  arrived  February  2,  1872.  With  G.  F.  Verbeck, 
revised  the  national  scheme  of  education  during  February,  1872.  In  Imperial 
University  until  July,  1874.  The  most  important  papers  of  the  writer,  and 
those  having  the  greatest  influence  in  Japan,  were — his  initial  proposition, 
made  in  December,  1871,  looking  to  technical  and  manual  training;  “Christ  in 
Japan  : A Protest  Against  Sectarianism,”  in  a letter  to  the  native  Christians, 
1874  (reprinted  in  “Sunny  Memories  of  Three  Pastorates”  (Ithaca,  1903); 
and  twelve  critical  articles  in  The  Japan  Mail,  on  Education  in  Japan,  1874, 
reprinted  in  New  Haven,  Conn.  Many  of  the  author’s  writings  have  been 
translated,  or  reproduced  in  Europe  and  Asia.  Decorated  by  the  Emperor 
with  the  Order  of  Merit  (the  Rising  Sun). 

M.  N.  Wyckoff.  Manual  of  English  Composition  (in  Japanese),  Tokio, 
1885.  Revision  of  the  English,  in  Akada  and  Satomi’s  “How  to  Speak  Japan- 
ese Correctly,”  Tokio,  1903. 

S.  R.  Brown.  Translations  of  Sei-yo  Ki-Bun,  a Japanese  work  in  3 volumes, 
by  the  famous  scholar  Aral  Hakuseki  (1657-1725)  ; and  of  the  Old  and  New 
Testaments,  1868-76;  Grammar  of  Colloquial  Japanese,  1863  ; Prendergast’s 


32 


Mastery  System  applied  to  Japanese,  1875 ; many  letters  in  American  news- 
papers. Not  a few  of  Dr.  Brown’s  pupils  became  eminent  in  law,  literature, 
journalism,  education,  statesmanship  and  the  Christian  ministry.  In  Wash- 
ington he  pointed  out  to  his  former  neighbor  in  Auburn,  N.  Y.,  Secretary  Wil- 
liam H.  Seward,  that  Perry’s  treaty  was  not  signed  by  the  Emperor  or  his 
representatives.  All  nations  profited  by  this  exposure. 

G.  F.  Verbeck.  Author  of  several  tracts  and  unpublished  important  mem- 
orials to  the  Government  of  Japan,  which  have  had  immense  influence  for 
good,  on  such  vital  national  subjects  as  freedom  of  conscience,  freedom  of 
the  press,  secular  control  of  property  held  by  religious  corporations,  and  on 
other  matters  of  vast  importance  to  an  Oriental  nation  emerging  into  modern 
life.  Translator  of  the  Bible  and  hymn  books.  Literary  criticisms  of  import- 
ant books.  History  of  Protestant  Missions  in  Japan,  1883.  Decorated  by  the 
Emperor  with  the  third  class  of  the  Order  of  the  Rising  Sun  for  meritorious 
services.  Verbeck’s  most  important  service,  perhaps,  was  his  elaboration  of 
the  scheme  of  national  education,  in  the  early  months  of  1872 — the  writer’s 
criticisms,  on  lack  of  manual  training  and  technical  education,  proving  very 
effective.  Japan  is  now  a leading  nation  in  technological  studies  and  arts. 

J.  L.  Amerman.  Biblical  Theology  of  the  New  Testament,  2nd  ed.,  1884; 
Argument  for  Being  of  a God,  and  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  Systematic 
Theology,  1884;  Attributes  of  God  and  Trinity,  1885.  The  Divine  Decrees; 
Anthropology;  The  Creation  of  the  World;  Soteriology;  Church  Government; 
The  Gospel  of  Mark,  in  Colloquial.  All  in  collaboration  with  the  Rev.  K. 
Ibuka,  A.M. 

Frank  S.  Scudder.  Work  on  the  Sunday  School  Lessons.  Author  of 
Songs  of  Rutgers. 

In  addition  to  books  in  bound  volumes,  most  of  the  missionaries  have  made 
contributions  in  various  ways  to  a Christian  Japanese  literature,  especially  in 
local  missionary  and  secular  publications  in  Japan.  Tracts,  hymns,  manuals, 
and  the  entire  liturgy  of  the  Reformed  Church  in  America,  now  in  Japanese 
dress,  are  the  products  of  their  labors.  Mrs.  E.  R.  Miller  edited  the  Yoro- 
kobino  Otodzure  (Glad  Tidings),  a weekly  Christian  newspaper,  and  a leaflet 
published  for  little  children,  which  are  continued  by  Japanese  editors. 

Rev.  E.  Rothesay  Miller  translated  and  published  Princess  Splendor  (a 
Japanese  Romance — the  Taketori  Monogatari — of  the  tenth  century),  Tokio. 

Miss  Carrie  Ballagh  (Mrs.  Harrell)  has  written  sketches  and  stories. 

For  the  more  recent  contributions,  see  The  Japan  Evangelist,  published  in 
Tokio. 

VHT.  HOW  THE  JAPANESE  CAME  TO  NEW  BRUNSWICK. 

(By  the  Rev.  John  M.  Ferris,  D.D.,  Honorary  Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions 
of  the  Reformed  Church  in  America.) 

Returning  from  an  errand  to  the  office  of  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions 
at  103  Fulton  street,  N.  Y.,  late  in  the  afternoon  in  the  autumn  of  1866  I foimd 
there  a plain  looking  man  and  two  young  men  who  appeared  to  be  Chinamen. 
The  man  proved  to  be  the  captain  of  a bark,  the  young  men  Japanese.  They 


33 


were  clothed  in  American  garments.  They  presented  a letter  from  Rev.  Guido 
F.  Verbeck,  then  at  Nagasaki,  in  which  it  was  said  only  that  they  were  of  good 
family  and  worthy  of  attention.  Inquiry  elicited  that  they  had  been  a few 
months  in  Dr.  Verbeck’s  school,  had  learned  some  English  there,  and  picked  up 
more  on  the  long  voyage  of  about  six  months.  They  wished,  they  said,  to  study 
navigation,  to  learn  how  to  build  “big  ships”  and  make  “big  guns”  to  prevent 
European  powers  from  taking  possession  of  their  country.  They  had  one  hun- 
dred dollars  in  gold  remaining  of  the  amount  with  which  they  started.  This, 
reckoning  the  cost  of  living  as  the  same  as  in  Japan,  they  thought  would  be 
nearly  enough  to  enable  them  to  accomplish  their  purpose.  I told  them  it 
would  be  necessary  to  study  many  things  before  they  could  properly  understand 
the  science  of  navigation,  and  especially  before  they  could  build  ships,  and  that 
the  money  they  had  would  be  far  from  enough  to  carry  them  through  the 
course  they  would  have  to  pursue,  but  that  I would  see  what  could  be  done  for 
them ; and  asked  them  to  call  frequently. 

Dr.  Yerbeck’s  letter  was  soon  after  presented  to  the  Executive  Committee  of 
the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions,  and  a report  made  of  conversations  with  the 
young  men.  The  members  of  the  committee  directed  that  an  endeavor  should 
be  made  to  find  a home  for  these  students  in  New  Brunswick,  and  to  provide 
for  their  instruction  in  the  grammar  school.  It  was  also  resolved  to  advance 
from  the  treasury  what  might  be  necessary  for  their  support  until  we  could 
hear  from  their  friends  in  Japan.  At  that  time  there  were  in  the  committee 
some  of  the  highest  contributors  in  the  church  to  the  income  of  the  Board. 
They  pledged  themselves  to  pay  the  advances  which  might  be  necessary,  if  ob- 
jection was  made  to  such  use  of  the  funds. 

The  young  men  gave  Ise  and  Numagawa  as  their  names ; they  proved  to  be 
assumed  names.  All  the  students,  who  for  some  years  came  from  Japan, 
dropped  their  real  names  and  assumed  others. 

I accompanied  Ise  and  Numagawa  to  New  Brunswick,  after  having  made 
some  inquiries,  and  conducted  them  to  the  residence  of  Mrs.  Van  Arsdale,  and 
told  her  who  they  were  and  what  they  wished  to  do.  She  asked  for  a few  min- 
utes to  consult  some  one,  and  soon  returned  to  the  parlor  accompanied  by  Mrs. 
Romeyn,  the  widow  of  Rev.  Dr.  James  Romeyn.  These  excellent  Christian 
ladies  had  almost  instantly  concluded  that  here  was  a most  desirable  opportun- 
ity to  do  an  important  work  for  the  Master  and  for  Japan.  They  were  very 
cordial,  almost  enthusiastic  in  the  welcome  they  extended  to  the  young  stu- 
dents, and  engaged  to  care  for  them  as  they  would  for  their  own  children. 

We  then  walked  to  the  residence  of  Rev.  Alexander  McKelvey,  the  Rector 
of  the  Grammar  School,  and  were  most  heartily  received.  He  manifested  great 
pleasure  in  the  prospect  of  teaching  students  from  Japan,  and  through  them 
conveying  the  benefits  of  a Christian  education  to  their  countrymen. 

This  reception  we  could  only  regard  as  providential,  for  it  was  difficult  for 
some  years  to  find  homes  for  Japanese  students.  Other  boarders  threatened  to 
leave  and  Irish  servants  almost  uniformly  threatened  to  leave  if  they  were 
taken  into  the  house.  I once  spent  two  days  unsuccessfully.  In  endeavoring  to 
obtain  rooms  in  a private  boarding  house  for  a Japanese  prince  (Adzuma),  a 


34 


member  of  the  Imperial  family,  and  his  three  attendants,  who  were  very  cour- 
teous gentlemen.  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  add  that  Mrs.  Van  Arsdale  and 
Mrs.  Romeyn  fulfilled  their  promises  to  the  letter,  and  that  Mr.  McKelvey 
proved  a patient,  sympathetic  and  earnest  teacher.^ 

The  young  men  had  forfeited  their  lives  by  coming  to  this  country.  They 
had  left  without  permission  of  the  government,  for  it  was  then  extremely 
doubtful  whether  such  permission  could  have  been  obtained.  Fortunately  their 
uncle  was  highly  esteemed  by  the  daimids  as  a counsellor,  and  was  a rising  man 
in  the  empire.  He  not  long  after  became  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  progressive 
party  and  was  made  one  of  the  two  Ministers  of  Foreign  Affairs.  His 
nephews  wrote  to  him,  to  other  relatives  and  to  their  friends.  I also  wrote,  in 
the  name  of  the  Board,  especially  to  Dr.  Verbeck,  to  Rev.  R.  S.  Brown,  D.D., 
and  Rev.  James  H.  Ballagh,  who  represented  us  in  Japan.  Dr.  Verbeck  cast 
his  increasing  influence  into  the  scale.  Dr.  Brown,  who  was  acting  as  interpre- 
ter to  the  American  Embassy,  and  therefore  respected  by  the  Japanese  authori- 
ties, was  consulted,  and  urged  that  Ise  and  Numagawa  had  taken  a wise  step, 
ought  to  be  commended,  and  that  other  students  should  be  sent  to  the  United 
States. 

The  government  soon  expressed  its  approbation  of  the  course  of  the  young 
students,  appropriated  money  to  repay  the  advances  made  for  them,  and  to 
meet  the  expense  of  their  education  in  this  country. 

Such  was  the  beginning  of  the  great  movement  to  this  country  and  to 
Europe  of  Japanese  young  men  to  obtain  a knowledge  of  western  science.  Dur- 
ing the  following  ten  years,  I think,  about  five  hundred  of  these  students  in  all 
sought  advice  or  assistance  of  one  kind  and  another,  at  the  office  of  our  Board. 
The  work,  involving  some  thought  and  effort  and  responsibility,  was  through- 
out a very  pleasant  one,  and  as  now  recalled,  brings  up  many  delightful  inci- 
dents. Pages  could  easily  be  filled  with  the  events  of  that  movement  of  eager, 
earnest  and  most  courteous  men  to  obtain  an  education. 

V'hen  the  movement  was  at  its  height,  the  revolution  which  deposed  the  Ty- 
coon, began  in  Japan.  .Some  of  the  students  were  soon  out  of  money.  They 
called  on  me  and  stated  their  case.  I visited  a few  gentlemen  and  wrote  to 
others.  A company  was  quickly  formed  which  engaged  to  furnish  money  as  I 
might  call  for  it,  until  the  result  of  the  attack  on  the  Tycoon  should  be  reached. 
The  following  persons  were  the  contributors:  Jonathan  Sturges,  James  Schief- 
felin,  James  A.  Williamson,  D.  Jackson  Steward,  Gen.  Robert  H.  Pruyn,  and 
Mrs.  Anna  M.  Ferris.  When  the  revolution  of  1868  was  decided,  the  advances, 
for  which  the  students  had  given  due  bills,  were  repaid.  When  the  last  com- 
pany of  commissioners  from  Japan,  led  by  Mr.  Iwakura  visited  this  country, 
they  prepared  a paper  recognizing  this  generous  kindness  and  saying  that  it  had 
had  more  effect  in  confirming  the  friendly  regard  for  the  United  States  by  the 

1 The  name  of  Rev.  Alexander  McKelvey,  D.D.  (Rutgers,  1856),  is  one  that  deserves 
to  stand  in  high  honor  on  the  roll  of  those  who  have  wrought  for  the  union  of  the  Occi- 
dent and  Orient  in  one  world-brotherhood.  Born  at  Killvleagh,  County  Down,  Ireland, 
March  28,  1847,  he  died  at  Boonton,  N.  T.,  October  19,  1908,  after  holding  several  pastor- 
ates in  the  Reformed  and  Presbyterian  Churches.  He  was  Rector  of  the  Grammar  School, 
1866-67. 


35 


Government  of  Japan  than  any  event  in  their  intercourse  with  this  country. 
Some  of  the  contributors  advanced  five  to  six  hundred  dollars. 

My  impression  is  that  three  or  four  gentlemen  besides  those  I have  named, 
assisted  in  providing  for  the  emergency,  but  I was  at  the  time  obtaining  money 
for  various  objects  and  cannot  speak  of  them  positively.  The  chief  contribu- 
tors were  those  I have  named. 

John  M.  Ferris.’^ 

New  York,  December  30,  1885. 


As  these  sheets  go  to  press,  the  author  and  compiler  has  found  among  the 
papers  of  Dr.  J.  M.  Ferris,  sent  him  by  his  daughter.  Miss  Anna  Ferris,  a docu- 
ment which  in  the  history  of  international  education  and  as  making  for  the 
coming  unity  of  the  Orient  and  Occident  is  of  the  highest  importance.  Among 
the  fifty-five  “creators”  of  the  New  Japan,  the  author  of  the  document  was, 
relatively,  like  the  aged  Franklin  among  the  American  Constitution  makers  of 
1789.  He  was  assassinated  shortly  after,  February  15,  1869,  for  his  liberal,  or 
Christian  opinions.  It  is  the  greeting  of  the  proto-martyr  of  the  New  Japan  to 
the  first  American  benefactor  of  the  Japanese  students  in  America.  A rough 
translation  reads  as  follows : 

Meiji,  1st  year,  9th  month,  19th  day, 
Kioto,  Japan 
(Nov.  4,  1868.) 

Dear  Sir, 

I pen  a few  lines.  My  nephews,  Ise  Sabaro  and  Numagawa  Saburo,  write 
me  very  often  that,  ever  since  they  arrived  in  America,  they  have  been  treated 
so  kindly  that  they  can  scarcely  express  their  feelings.  Hence  I am  exceed- 
ingly  grateful  to  you,  and  my  mind  is  satisfied.  I send  to  you,  for  them,  by  this 
mail,  three  hundred  dollars.  Please  hand  this  amount  to  them.  Thanking  you 
for  your  kindness  shown  to  these  lads  and  begging  also  to  send  you  my  kind 
regards,  I remain  dear  Sir, 

Yours  Most  sincerely, 

Yokoi  Heishiro. 

To  Dr.  Ferris. 

Keceived  in  New  York,  March  23,  1869. 

1 Rev.  John  Mason  Ferris,  D.D.,  was  graduated  in  1843  from  the  New  York  Univer- 
sity, of  which  his  father  was  Chancellor  (1852-1870).  He  wrote,  in  The  Christian  Intel- 
^ ligencer,  of  October,  1905,  four  articles,  at  my  request,  in  continuance  of  the  subject  of 

the  above  letter.  In  the  syndicate  and  subscriptions  were  Jonathan  Sturgis,  James  Schief- 
felin,  James  A.  Williamson,  D.  Jackson  Steward,  who  contributed  each  $1,000;  and  Rob- 
ert H.  Pruyn  and  Mrs.  Anna  M.  Ferris,  who  offered  each  $500.  Only  one-third  of  this 
money  was  drawn  and  used,  and  all  was  repaid  within  a few  months  after  peace.  In  his  let- 
ter and  articles,  the  statements,  dates  and  consecution  of  events  in  Japan  must,  of  necessity, 
be  received  with  caution.  In  supplying  books  and  apparatus,  Messrs.  A.  S.  Barnes  & Co. 
and  G.  P.  Putnam’s  Sons  were  generous.  The  Restoration  was  virtually  accomplished 
(in  1868,  not  1866)  before  any  students  were  sent  by  the  Imperial  Government  (and  not 
by  individuals),  to  America,  or  abroad.  See  sketch  of  his  life  and  work  in  The  Christian 
Intelligencer,  October,  1916. 


36 


IX.  OFFICIAL  ACKNOWLEDGEMENT  OE  THE  MIKADO’S 
AMBASSADORS,  IWAKURA  AND  OKUBO. 

Secretary’s  Office  of  the  Japanese  Embassy, 
Boston,  August  5,  1872. 

Rev.  J.  M.  Eerris,  D.D. 

Dear  Sir — The  Ambassadors,  being  on  the  eve  of  their  departure  from  the 
United  States,  desire  again  to  convey  to  you  this  expression  of  their  thanks  for 
the  interest  which  you  have  (for  many  years)  invariably  manifested  in  their 
people  and  country. 

The  kind  assistance  and  encouragement  which  were  so  generally  extended 
by  you  to  the  Japanese  students  who  studied  in  this  country  during  a crisis  of 
such  importance  in  our  national  history,  will  long  be  remembered  by  us.  These 
students  are  now  far  advanced  in  knowledge,  and  are  very  useful  to  our  coun- 
try, and  the  Ambassadors  feel  it  is  mainly  due  to  your  instrumentality. 

Until  recently  an  impression  has  prevailed  in  Japan,  that  many  foreign  na- 
tions did  not  entertain  kindly  feelings  toward  our  people. 

The  generous  conduct  exhibited  by  yourself  and  other  gentlemen  in  this 
instance,  as  well  as  in  all  matters  of  educational  interest  pertaining  to  the 
Japanese  youth,  will  do  much  to  correct  this  impression,  and  will  do  more  to 
cement  the  friendly  relations  of  the  two  countries  than  all  other  influences  com- 
bined. 

Please  extend  to  the  gentlemen  this  renewed  assurance  of  the  Ambassadors’ 
high  appreciation  of  their  kindness,  and  they  will  likewise,  on  returning  to 
Japan,  explain  the  matter  satisfactorily  to  our  government. 

We  remain  yours  very  truly, 

TOMOMI  IWAKURA, 
TOSHIMITI  OKUBO. 


Note.  — The  names  of  the  Ambassadors  are  signed  in  Japanese  characters,  and  their 
secretary  adds  the  English  equivalents. 

New  York,  January  4,  1886. 

Dear  Dr.  Griffis  : 

To  prevent  any  misunderstanding  of  the  above  it  should  be  known  that  I acted  as  the 
secretary  of  our  Board  of  Foreign  Missions,  and  not  as  an  individual ; that  my  importance 
and  ability  were  almost  wholly  dependent  on  that  fact ; that  as  an  individual  I could  have 
accomplished  very  little ; that  the  assistance  rendered  to  the  students  during  the  crisis  in 
Japanese  history  was  possible  only  through  the  cordial  and  generous  loans  of  the  gentle- 
men already  named.  I was  only  the  representative  of  others,  the  instrument  through 
which  they  acted,  and  the  acknowledgment  by  the  Ambassador  belongs  to  them  more  than 
to  me.  Yours  sincerely, 

JOHN  M.  FERRIS. 


